


Trials and some elation

by Joeggernaut



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, French Revolution
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-12
Updated: 2016-05-24
Packaged: 2018-05-20 00:27:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 25,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5986173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joeggernaut/pseuds/Joeggernaut
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The French Revolution was a major event that was marked with several de facto alliances and friendships which, for the most part, all broke down spectacularly. Betrayal and despair would not be too far off the money.  </p>
<p>And Marinette and Adrien have to write a report over it. What fun. Gee, I really hope betrayal and despair are not going to be major motifs in the lives of Marinette and Adrien/Ladybug and Chat, because that would be bad. </p>
<p>Naw, I'm sure they'll be fine. They ARE beacons of hope and justice, right? </p>
<p>...right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Marinette doesn't read ahead

**Author's Note:**

> +10 points to you if you can pronounce any of this French stuff. 
> 
> Also if you see typos or something let me know.

Chat Noir was on patrol, scouring the streets (more like rooftops), keeping one cat eye out for crime and the other out for danger. It was oh so incredibly…boring. Nothing ever happens on patrol. He wasn’t even sure why Ladybug insists on the idea. He was partly convinced this is just some kind of joke. That she actually just stayed home during her shifts and he was the only one patrolling at all. He jumped to yet another Parisian rooftop and checked down below. People walking around, not in danger. Cars passing by, not in danger. A girl handing out baked goods from a tray, not in…hold on. She looked familiar. Chat squinted to try to see her better. Pink pants, dark jacket, black hair…Hey that was Marinette.

_MARINETTE!_ Chat panicked, _NO NO NO NO NO!_ He quickly glanced down at his watch, or where his watch would have been it he wasn’t wearing a cat suit. He didn’t know what time it was. Why didn’t he know what time it was?? Why didn’t he take a watch when he knew he had to be somewhere!?

“Okay, okay calm down,” he soothed his nerves, “It clearly isn’t time yet or she wouldn’t be outside.” Just then she began to pack up her stuff and head back into the bakery. “NO!” He yelled to himself. He had to do something, or else he’d be late. Adrien would be late. And Adrien is _never_ late. Okay, sure, sometimes he late to school, but that’s because he’s got some cat-like responsibilities, not negligence. He had to do something. He hastily thought up a plan.  

Alright, here was the plan. Chat Noir would go and distract Marinette. Who, would in turn, also become late. Then Adrien would show up late, but, since Marinette was also late, nobody could really say he’d be late since she was too. It was the perfect plan that totally made sense and was in no way influenced by the fact that she was still carrying the tray of baked good which may or may not have interested Chat mightily.

\---

Marinette was packing it in. She folded up the sign that said “Try One” in really big letters that she had made and put it under her arm. With her other hand she was carefully balancing the tray of free-samples. This was, an awkward way of carrying things but she slowly made her way to the door of the bakery. She made it to the door and was about to open it when, out of nowhere, she heard the cheery, flirty voice of Chat Noir.

“Well well well what have we here,” It said, “A princesses bearing gifts of her likeness?” She did not have time for this. She needed to go triple check her room was in presentable order, and that she was in presentable order, before Adrien showed up.

“Are you calling me a croissant?” She asked, somewhat impatiently.

“I’m calling you sweet.” He said grinning as he picked up a cookie and gestured to it. On a scale from 1 to 10, that line was a solid 6 which is still well below the threshold to have any effect on Marinette. He broke off part of the cookie and placed it in his mouth, rather satisfied with himself.

“Oh, _wow_! The great Chat Noir paying me such a lovely complement. Please allow me some solace so that I may faint in the peace of my own house.” She replied back. She recognized that she was throwing out way more sass that Marinette ought to, but she really wanted to make sure things were good enough for Adrien. I mean come on, Chat, go away.

Instead of leaving Chat took another bite of his cookie and stared at her, deciding how to respond. He really wasn’t sure of what to make of that last comment. Marinette was, odd. He couldn’t ever get a solid grasp on her. As Chat or as Adrien. She seemed like two entirely different people depending on who he presented himself as. When he was Adrien, she was kinda shy, somewhat clumsy, and awkward, but she was also nice and really kind and supportive. But when he was Chat, she was like, sassy, collected, and generally unimpressed with his impressive presence. It was weird.

After some several seconds of Char Noir just staring at her, Marinette decided that this was going nowhere and she was just going to exit the situation. She tried to grab the door handle, but between the sign under her arm and the tray in her hand, she couldn’t quite grasp it. Chat could though, and he did. He held open the door, gestured inside and said “Ladies first.”

“Ladies only,” Marinette corrected as she made her way through the door. The door was shut behind her. She turned back to make sure that Chat wouldn’t follow her inside. He hadn’t. That Chat. He was really something else. What has he doing chatting it up with Marinette, he is supposed to be on patrol! She was, however, partially relieved that Chat actually does his patrols. She was somewhat convinced that Chat had just agreed to patrol without ever actually doing any. It was nice to know that he was at least doing some of his job.   

She placed the samples tray on a display case, packed the sign in the backroom, said hi to her parents and raced upstairs to inspect her room for the third time. Everything seemed orderly. All the Adrien pictures had been neatly stashed away, her computer had been cleared, and there were no other Adrien related things in sight. _Now if I can just keep my parents in line_ , she thought. She walked over to the bathroom to make sure that she was in order. She fixed her hair and straightened out her clothes as best she could. She was about to brush her teeth for the second time this hour when she heard her mom yelled up, “Adrien is here.” _Oh god,_ she thought. _They’re talking to him again!_

She practically sprinted to the door and ran halfway down the stairs.

“Ah, a history project huh?” Her dad was saying.

“Yes, our class is covering the French Revolution. Marinette and I have to write a report over the National Convention up to the Thermidorian Reaction.”

“Oh wow, that sounds pretty intense.” Her mom commented.

“Ah, well it shouldn’t be too bad,” Adrien replied.

“Adrien,” Marinette interrupted, “You can come on up.” She waved him up and shot her parents a look. They just smiled and told them both to study hard.

\---

_The National Convention succeeded the Legislative Assembly and was founded after the First Republic had stormed the Tuileries Palace in what came to be known as The Insurrection of 10 August 1792,_ Marinette read silently, _The National Convention was made of up of members elected by Frenchmen of eligible standing._ She was trying really hard to stay on task and absorb this information. However, she kept glancing at Adrien after every few words or so. Adrien wasn’t looking at his textbook at all. He was instead casually scanning Marinette’s room, which made her uneasy. She was pretty sure she had cleaned everything up.

“Uh-,” She started to say. Adrien looked back at her.

“What’s up?” He asked politely. Marinette scrambled for something to say.

“Did you already read, uh, this,” She said gesturing to her textbook.

“Oh, yeah. My father had a Revolutionary France inspired fashion show once that I was in. So, he insisted that I learn all about it before hand. I wouldn’t say it helped my modeling any, but it certainly was interesting.”

“Oh, Wow,” was the response she gave. She couldn’t think of anything better than that. She thought about how stupid she was for not reading ahead. Now Adrien would have to wait on her.

“S-Sorry,” she said shyly.

“For what?” Adrien asked with a confused look.

“That I didn’t read this before. I promise I’ll carry my weight. I didn’t know you’d already know all about this…”

Adrien laughed. “Hey don’t worry about it. This project sounds pretty easy anyway. I’ll bet you could do it on your own no sweat.”

“Wha-, no.   You-, you such a cute-, Acute! I mean, you have acute knowledge of this. I’ll need your help. Hehe,” She let out a nervous laugh.

Adrien looked questioningly at Marinette. She was wearing an awkward smile and fidgeting with her textbook. When his eyes met hers, she darted hers back down to the safety of the text. Marinette had suddenly gotten all nervous again. What was that? Maybe he shouldn’t have mentioned his father’s fashion show. Was she intimidated by his dad’s fame? It’d be best not to mention him again.

Marinette buried her gaze into the words “National Convention.” She was really off her game today. Sometimes she could keep it together around Adrien. Like that one time when her uncle visited, that went really well. But today, she was just falling apart. She’d been rushed to get ready. If she just had some time to collect herself before Adrien got there, she could play it cool. But she didn’t. Why? Because Chat Noir decided to show up out of nowhere and make her late. That was so weird. How unlucky could she be?

Marinette accidentally let out an audible sigh.

“Want to take a break?” Adrien asked politely.

“Sure,” she agreed. “What would you like to do?”

“We could play some Ultimate Mecha Strike,” he suggested. This made Marinette relax some.

“Only if you’re prepared to lose!” She boasted. This she could do. “Grab the spare controller in desk drawer.” She rolled her chair over to the dresser to grab her controller off of it.

Adrien rolled his chair over to the desk. He opened the big bottom drawer. It didn’t have the controller in it; instead it was filled with yarn. Intrigued, he dug around and found some metal needles jutting out of the yarn. He pulled them out.

“I didn’t know you knit Marinette.”

“Oh, yes, I do. The controller is in the drawer above that one.” He didn’t go for the drawer; instead he was examining the needles and yarn. He ran his fingers through the yarn. It felt soft. He liked the color, light blue. It seemed familiar. Why did it seem familiar? He racked his brain. Light blue yarn, light blue yarn…Oh, right! The scarf his dad gave him for his birthday was this color. Yeah, and it had this texture too. Must be the same type of yarn. Weird. He was about to place yarn and needles back into its drawer, when he saw something peculiar laying in it. He pulled out some papers the yarn had been on top of. It was a paper with the title “Birthday Scarf” in handwritten cursive. What followed was a list of k’s and p’s. It must have been a pattern. Did Marinette make this? He flipped the paper. On the back was a big table filled with several blue cells and a couple of golden ones. The golden cells were positioned in a way that they formed letters. It was a big golden word in the table. A name. Adrien.

While Adrien was rummaging through her knitting pattern, unbeknownst to her, Marinette was using this opportunity to consult with Tiki.   

“Tiki, I’m not sure I can keep this up. I’m getting nervous.” Marinette confessed.

“You’re doing fine Marinette,” Tiki consoled. “Besides, you should really be nervous about getting your assignment done. You just started and you’re already taking a break.”

“I know, but, he already knew all this stuff. We’ll get it done. I’m more worried about forming coherent sentences.”

“Just relax, you’ve talked with Adrien tons of times.”

“Yeah, but now it’s just me and him.” Just her and him. In a room together. Alone. That is kind of intimate. Wait, is it intimate? No, no, he’s just here for homework. But he’s not doing homework now. They’re taking a break. But not from each other, from their homework. She could talk or say whatever and she’d have his full attention. Adrien’s full attention. Her face began to get flush thinking about Adrien’s beautiful face looking kindly at her while she says something really interesting and cool. Then he’d say, _Wow Marinette, you’re so smart and pretty. How have I not noticed all this time?_ And then he’d lean in for a kiss! And then she’d kiss him back so hard the rest of the day would just melt away.

Except she didn’t have anything really interesting and cool to say. And even if she did, she’d probably stutter or mess up a word. If Alya were here she’d say this was her chance to tell Adrien how she feels. It was an opportunity. But Marinette knew she couldn’t do it. Not now, not today.

“Earth to Marinette,” Tiki was saying. “You’re zoning out again.”

“Sorry Tiki, I got distracted.”

“Well you should get back to Adrien, it doesn’t take this long to grab a controller!”

Marinette nodded and flashed Tiki a warm smile. She turned back to face Adrien.

Marinette had seen some horrifying things in her life. For example, the army of mummies summoned by The Pharaoh was pretty high on the list, and the whole episode with the Horrificator was pretty scary. But none of those struck her quite the way that seeing Adrien read his birthday scarf pattern did. It was the worst thing that could have happened.

She let out an audible gasp.

\---

The human brain has somewhere between 80-90 billion neurons inside of it. At any given moment, somewhere between 1-16% of these cells are active. However, if you were to look into Adrien’s brain, one might see all of those cells light up. They would be saying something like this, _oh my god, why the **hell** does Marinette have a pattern of my scarf!_

Adrien glanced back and forth, looking from the pattern to the yarn and back to the pattern again. He was trying to piece things together. But none of the pieces fit. Marinette has the materials, and the pattern, why?

“Marinette?” He asked in a cool, relaxed tone, expertly concealing his internal strife. “Do you remember that scarf I got from my birthday?”

She panicked. What is she supposed to say to this? She can’t admit to making the scarf; that would crush him. He’d been so happy to get something from his dad. She couldn’t ruin it now. She had to think fast.

“U-uh, scarf? What scarf? I don’t remember any scarf? Did you get a scarf? I love to knit them…”

_WHAT WAS THAT?_ She scolded herself, _I love to knit them_. _Why would she say that? Stupid Stupid Stupid._

“Is that was this is?” he asked waving the pattern. “Directions for a scarf?”

“Uh, y-yeah. T-that’s what it is. I love to knit the-, er, I love yo-. I mean, I’d love to, make one for you.” He was pretty sure she already had. Why was she lying to him? He was starting to get annoyed.

“So you don’t remember it at all then?” He asked more sternly.

“Nope, no. I must have missed it.” She denied. “So do you want to play the game? I got my con-“

“I only bring this up,” he interrupted, “because this is the exact same yarn used in mine.”

“O-oh, well that’s just a coincidence. I mean, it’s not like I made your scarf or anything. Your, uh, dad, got it…right?”

That was basically a confession.

“Well,” Adrien said, “that’s what I had thought. But, from this look of things. I’d say you _did_ make it.”

This was going badly. Marinette needed to start deflecting fast. Something clever. But what? Oh, Ladybug could handle this so easily, why couldn’t Marinette??

“Who, me? No, no, no. I couldn’t do-, I wouldn’t make-, your father he-“

“He’s a busy and often neglectful man.” Adrien stated matter-a-factly. The emotion had been drained from his voice. He was pissed. Pissed at his dad for forgetting his birthday and stealing Marinette’s gift, and pissed at Marinette for trying to cover for him. Adrien had a right to know what was going on. He did not appreciate her lying to him. “Why are you lying to me Marinette?”

“I…I’m not…I wouldn’t-“

“But you are!” He raised his voice a bit.

“Yeah, but-“ her voice grew weaker.

“What is this? Did he put you up to this!? I have a right to know!” He was grimacing.

“Adrien, I-“ She started to feel tears begin to swell in her eyes.

“What’re you hiding!?”

Marinette wished that she could rewind back time. She didn’t like this. She drew her knees up to her chest and hugged them. He was so clearly angry. Angry at her. This was not supposed to happen. Why had this happened? Maybe, maybe she could still salvage it. She had to think of something clever.

“I-I made it for your dad to give to you!” she blurted out. “He…after the hat making contest, he asked me to make something for your birthday. So, I made you the scarf.”  
It was a pretty good cover. It made sense and was somewhat plausible. That is, if those events had happened in that order. Which she’d later recall, they did not.

This, however, pushed Adrien over the edge. She couldn’t have known that Gabriel Agreste would **never** make that kind of arrangement, ever.

“OH PLEASE!” Adrien fumed, “My father would never make a deal like that with _someone like you_!”

_Someone like you._ He had said that with a particularly harsh tone. He hadn’t intended on in, he himself didn’t even notice. But Marinette did. It was too much for her. She couldn’t fight back all the tears now. A few rolled down her face. She turned away from him and tried not to cry. She buried her head into her knees.

When Adrien saw the few tears she had shed, all of his anger and hardness melted away. He realized what he had said, how he had said it. He’d messed up.

“Ah, no Marinette stop. Don’t cry,” he pleaded. “I didn’t mean it like that. I was just angry.”

“I-“ Marinette squeaked out, trying but failing to keep composure. “I’m not crying.”

She clearly was. Adrien got up and went over to her. He placed his hand on her shoulder. That didn’t help. Now she had an even harder time. Her nose began to run a bit.

“I’m so sorry,” he said, “when I said someone like you I meant, like nice and sweet and kind!”

Hearing all those nice things, made her really want to cry now. She wished he’d just go away. She didn’t want him to see her now, as a crying mess. This was so much worse than him being mad. He knelt down in front of her so that his eyes were level with hers. She glanced up at him. He looked so distressed and concerned. Adrien didn’t know how to deal with crying girls. He was plagued with guilt.

“Marinette please forgive me,” he pleaded, “I don’t want you to be upset.”

“I’m not,” she paused to take a breath, “I’m not upset.” She smiled up at him and let her legs drop to the floor. But her words betrayed her. She had gone into full sobbing mode. One non-stop ticket to tearsville.

Adrien did the only thing he thought of to do. He moved his hand from her shoulder down her back and pulled her to him. Marinette was shocked to find her head next to his, bodies touching, in his warm embrace. She gave in.

She pressed her face into him and threw her arms around him. She was sobbing into his shoulder.

“Don’t be mad at me.” He said soothingly.

“I’m not,” her muffled voice replied back in between the sobs. “I’m not mad. I–“

“Shhhhhhhhh”

He rubbed her back in small circles with one hand, like his mother had done for him once, and held the back of her head with the other. His fingers ran through her hair. She focused on his welcoming heat. She hugged him tighter. Several moments passed.

“Marinette,” he began, “I-, I’m not sure what he said to you-, or-“ She leaned back from him and looked into his eyes.

“No, he. He never-. I’m not sure why but, I just dropped it off-.” She didn’t know what else to say. Honestly she couldn’t make sense of it either. When it happened, she was disappointed at first, but after seeing how happy Adrien was, she didn’t give it any real thought after that. She just chalked it up to fate.

Adrien thought about it. So Marinette brings the gift to his house, then, well, Nathalie would have received it. Nathalie. That must be it. She would have been in charge of getting Adrien a gift as well. She must have just stolen Marinette’s! His dad probably wasn’t any the wiser. Not that he’d care. He probably didn’t even know Adrien had gotten a scarf. Adrien quietly cursed himself for thinking his dad had changed. As if he’d ever break character.

“I think I understand,” Adrien stated after mulling this over. “I’m sorry you had to go through that. But you could have just told me…”

“Well, I wanted to but-“ She said back. “When I saw how happy you were to get a gift from your dad, I-, I didn’t want to ruin that.”

He looked into her deep blue eyes. They were bright and shiny with compassion. It was as if he was the only thing in the room, in the world to her. He hadn’t seen eyes like that in a long time. She was probably the kindest girl he’d ever met.

“Marinette,” He said her name softly. “Why? How can you possibly be this nice?” He said more as complements than actual questions. “Why are you so nice to me?”

“Well, Adrien,” She started to say without thinking, “you, I-…to me you’re…I-I mean, I w-want, you to-, to be…”

This was her chance. Everything was building up to it. All of those moments she had spent looking at him, thinking about him, waving, talking,  all those times he had touched her shoulder, all of those moments had been building up to this. All she had to say was _my boyfriend_. That was it. Three syllables. Three syllables and it’d all be over. No more song and dance, no more daydreams, just reality.

“my-“ She continued. _Boyfriend_. She could do it. SHE COULD DO IT.

“m-my,” She stammered out.

“friend.”

Half right. She’d take it.

\---


	2. A dress for success

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette and Adrien continue to not do their homework, and instead, like, hangout, as if their first drafts aren't due soon. And these two are supposed to be role models. Puh-leaze.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This isn't about the French revolution at all. I have no idea where I'm going with this...

Friend

_noun_  \ˈfrend\

  * **:**  a person who you like and enjoy being with
  * **:**  a person who helps or supports someone or something (such as a cause or charity)



Adrien had grown up mostly alone, always held at a distance from his peers. Not entirely alone, of course, but he’d always felt like he was missing out on the kind of social lives his classmates had growing up. Now that he was older, he had his own budding social life and things were okay. But he didn’t have the kind of social experience that kids his age ought to have. Some things were just new to him. Hanging out at other people’s places, going to movies, things like that. But he’d always thought he was adapting well and getting the hang of things.

So when Marinette confessed to him that she wanted to be his friend, he was a bit put off. By all accounts, he thought they were _already_ friends. But maybe he was getting too far ahead. I mean, they _had_ hung out before. He helped translate her uncle’s Chinese, they almost played in that competition together, and they’d spent time together before with Alya and Nino. So, that made them friends, right?

“Of course I’m your friend Marinette,” Adrien said. “You didn’t need to knit me a scarf for that.” He smiled.

Friend. She had said, Friend. She was so annoyed with herself. Why? Why couldn’t she have said the whole word? It wasn’t hard. Only two syllables. But she had messed it up. Could she ever win?

“Haha, good!” She said, embarrassed. “Well I uh, I’m glad you like it. The, scarf.”

Adrien stood up and stretched his arms out to the side.

“I do really like it!” he affirmed.

Marinette smiled and rubbed her cheek. It was wet. _Oh right,_ she thought, _I was crying_. Just then she realized how gross she must be looking right now. She stood up and excused herself to her bathroom. She looked at herself in the mirror. Her eyes were slightly puffy and red. Her cheeks were wet and pink from where she had just rubbed it. Her nose was still running a bit. She was not a pretty sight. She cursed herself for crying and blew her nose into a tissue.  

After that had been taken care of it was onto her face. She splashed some water on her face and dried it off. She wet a towel and dabbed it on her cheeks and under her eyes. Better. She contemplated covering up her sad eyes with makeup, she did have some concealer that might do the trick, but decided against it. It was in the drawer of the sink in her room and getting that would take too long. She can’t leave Adrien out there forever, especially since he apparently likes to look through her stuff. She imagined him looking into some drawer and finding a poster of himself. She shuddered at the thought. Instead she just dabbed some moisturizer under her eyes. Good enough.

She exited the bathroom, and, oh look, Adrien is looking at her things. Great. Fortunately this time it was harmless.

Adrien was toying with her sewing machine. He waved at her when he saw she’d returned.

“This thing is-“ he decided not to say ancient, “retro.”

 “My sewing machine? Yeah. It, it was my mom’s.” She said. She was relieved that Adrien was acting relaxed now. She was nervous she’d freaked him out with her little break down. He turned to her.

“Make anything good recently?” He asked raising an eyebrow. Marinette froze.

“Make?” She asked confused.

“Yeah, make,” Adrien repeated, tapping her sewing machine. _Oh._

 Well, she _had_ been making stuff recently. But it was all, like, not good enough to be showing _Adrien Agreste_ , of the Agreste family lineage _._

“Uhhh…” There had to be something presentable. She’d made more dolls of her former foes. But like HELL she’d ever show those to Adrien! _God_ , if he knew she made dolls. That had to be avoided at all cost.

“W-well…I am currently making a dress.” She heard herself say. Of course, the dress. She had found a really nice darkish blue-black fabric, with a pattern on it that kind of made it look like the night sky, when she was out shopping with her mom a while ago and it was pretty cheap! Well moderately cheap. So she got it and had been making it into a skater dress.

“Oh wow really?” He said eagerly, “can I see it?”

“O-oh, uh,” She stammered, “It’s not, it isn’t finished.” She still hadn’t added the sleeves, and she needed to redo some of the stitching in the collar.

“Oh,” Adrien said, a bit dejected. She didn’t like that.

“But I can show you it so far,” She suggested.

“Yeah!” he happily agreed. He gave her a big smile as she went over to her closet to fetch the incomplete dress. She took it out of her closet and held it in front of her. The arm holes aside, it wasn’t looking half bad. She’d had a pretty good feeling about this one. She turned back to Adrien and held the dress in front of her. It was a bluish-blackish blend that had feint, small gold dots on it which could only really been seen when it moved.

“Wow Marinette!” Adrien complemented, “It looks fantastic.” She blushed.

“Thanks, Adrien.” She turned to dress to face herself, examining it.

“I still have to add the sleeves.” She commented, talking mostly to herself. “But I can’t decide how long I want them to be. I’ve been meaning to try it on to see…”

“So why don’t you?” He suggested innocently. Marinette snapped to attention.

“What?” She asked automatically, even though she’d heard him clearly.

“Try it on,” he repeated.

“Wha-, Here?” Adrien shrugged. Her face was turning red again.

“Yeah, why not?”

“B-b-b-but,” she stammered, “you’re here!” Adrien raised an eyebrow.

“Well I didn’t mean change into it _in_ here,” he clarified.

_Oh, of course not_ , she thought, _Adrien was a gentleman. He’d never suggest I change in front of him. God I’m such an idiot!_

“Haha,” she laughed nervously. “R-right, I knew that.”

Adrien let out a little laugh and grabbed a tape measure off of here desk.

“Here go try it on and we can figure out the sleeve length,” he said holding the tape measure. “I’ve helped out with this kind of thing before.”

Marinette just smiled and kind of gave an awkward nod. There was no way around it now. She would have to model her dress for Adrien. This would either go really well or really poorly.

\---

When she had closed to the door to the bathroom she let out a huge sigh. This was exhausting. It was supposed to be a study session, about the French revolution, remember that?, not a discover your secret birthday gift, cry, and try on a dress session.

But here she was, about to put on a dress. She took of her jacket and pulled her shirt off. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She dropped her shirt and examined her face. Still a little puffy under the eyes. Maybe she should have grabbed that concealer after all. She opened the sink drawers to see if she had anything she could use on it. Tooth paste, a box of bandages, some hydrocortisone, more moisturizer, some lip balm, no, nothing useful. She shrugged. It was fine. She took off her pants and took the dress off of the hanger. She was about to unzip the back when she realized something.

_Damn it_ , she cursed. She had forgotten that the zipper she had was too short. The dress was being held closed by pins. She knew she was forgetting something. She growled angrily as she pulled each pin out one by one and carefully placed them on the counter top. After she had pulled the last one she stepped into the dress and pulled it up over her. She slid her arms in the empty holes and pulled it snug against her chest. Now to re-pin it. Pinning was worst. She was able to easily pin up her lower back, but the higher she got the more difficult it became. When she had gotten just above halfway up her back she was really struggling. That’s when she heard a knock on the door.

“Hey Marinette?” It was Adrien. What awful, awful timing.

“Yeah?” She called back to him, struggling with the pin.

“You doing okay?”

“Uh, Yeah I’m good,” She said as the pin slipped through her fingers. It hit the ground, bounced around, and rolled under to door. _Great. Thanks pin._ Marinette sighed and pulled open the door. Adrien was standing on the other side, holding his newly acquired pin he just found off the ground. He smiled at her.

“Need some help?” He asked sweetly. She sighed. There was really no denying it now.

“I, uh,” she began, “I forgot to add the zipper and I need to pin the back closed.” Adrien glanced around her to see her holding the upper part of her dress closed with one hand.

“Ah, I see,” he replied. “I got it.” He walked around behind Marinette and inserted the pin into position.

“Where are the rest of the pins?” He asked.

“T-they’re on the counter.”  She said. _Great_ , she thought, _Now Adrien is literally putting this dress on me_. She was glad he was behind her though. Her face was turning a very serious shade of embarrassment right now.

After he got the pins from the counter he returned to finish the job. She could feel his cool fingertips on her back as he worked.

“You’re back’s pretty tense Marinette,” Adrien commented, “are you okay?” Tense was kind of an understatement for how she as feeling right now.

“I’m fine,” she lied.

“Hm,” Adrien responded. “You know I used to be pretty tense. But then Mr. D'Argencourt, he’s my fencing instructor, gave me some stretching routines that helped a lot.”  He only had a few pins left.

“Oh,” she said, trying to think of something to say, “did you find out why you’re tense?”

“Uh, just general stress I guess.”

“Oh,” was her only response. She decided not to venture into more personal territory again. Once was enough for one day.

“Okay, it’s done.” He said as he secured the last pin. Marinette ran her fingers down the spine. The pins were evenly spaced and the fabric wasn’t bunched or anything.

“Wow Adrien, you did a really good job!”

Adrien shrugged. “It’s just pinning.”

Marinette walked out into her room and up to her fully-body mirror. She’d gotten her measurements right, so that was good. The dress fit well on her body, not too loose or too tight. She was right to feel good about this one. She glanced up to see Adrien standing behind her in the mirror. She turned to him.

“So,” she said, trying to think of something to say.

“It looks really great on you Marinette,” he complemented, “You’re a really great fashion designer.” Adrien had called her a great fashion designer before, but each time it just got better and better. Marinette turned back to her reflection and gave herself a huge grin. Not an awkward, what-the-hell-am-I-doing grin, but a real, genuinely happy grin. This was going great! This is how the whole day should have gone.

“So how long are you thinking?” Adrien asked.

“Huh?” She replied confused.

“For the sleeves.” _Ah yes, the sleeves. That was the whole point of putting on the dress._

“Right,” she glanced down at her arms. The dress went down to just a little bit past mid-thigh. “Well, I was thinking of making it either cut off just past the elbow or midway on the arm.” She said while making hand chopping motions at the indicated lengths.

“What do you think?” She asked. Adrien lifted his hand up to his chin, considering.

“Are you sure you want to have sleeves at all?” He said finally. No sleeves? She hadn’t really considered that. She looked back at where the cloth ended at her shoulder. She felt some of it between her fingertips. She hadn’t really cut it to end right there, but she could make it work if she really wanted to. She’d have to cut it to be a better angle though. She lifted her arm up over her head to look at the back of armhole. She’d have to trim it back there as well.

Then she realized what she was doing, lifting her arm up in front of Adrien. When was the last time she’d shaved? She didn’t remember. She glanced up at her armpit. Fortunately, it must have not been that long. The little dark hairs weren’t immediately obvious. Still, she immediately dropped her hand back down to her side. She’d need to be more careful.

Adrien walked up close to her, holding the tape measure.

“So what’re you thinking?” He asked.

_Oh, if only you knew…_

“I think I’ll have it go past the elbow,” she decided. She was pretty sure that this was her plan all along.

“Past the elbow it is,” he said as he lifted her arm out to the side. He held one end of the tape measure against her exposed shoulder and drew it up along the length of her arm.

“Where do you want it?”

“Oh, uh,” she said, “maybe like to here.” She placed two fingers of her free hand on her forearm.

“You got it.” Adrien was about to read the measurement when his phone let out a loud **_Ding_** noise. He paused.

“Oh,” he said solemnly, “can you give me a sec?” Marinette nodded as he handed her the tape measure and pulled out his phone. She watched as his expression turned blank, eyes scanning his phone.

“Everything okay?” She asked after a little bit. He sighed.

“Yeah, but I have to get going.”

“Oh,” she replied. _No! Things were just getting going!_

“Yeah, I’m really sorry,” he said as he walked over and picked up his bag.

“That’s okay.”  He looked back down at his phone.

“Hey,” he said with a slightly brighter tone. “ I still want to thank you for the scarf.”

“Oh, you don’t have to-“ she began.

“How about I take you out to dinner?”

“ ** _WHAT!?_** ” She burst out, practically screaming.

“Uh, Is that a no then…?”

“Yes, I MEAN, NO no no,” she said, trying to keep calm, “I mean, I’d love to go out with you! Er, to eat out. Dinner. Yeah, I love food!” God what was she even saying right now.

“Right…” Adrien said, she was being kind of weird. “Well, how about Tuesday?”

“Okay!” She replied eagerly. He smiled at her.

“You can wear your dress,” he suggested has he opened the hatch to the downstairs.

“Oh, it won’t be ready by then.”  Adrien just shrugged.

“Well I’m sure you’ll look great regardless.” He smiled as he disappeared under the hatch. Leaving Marinette the privacy to melt into herself because OH MY GOD did you see that? That was real, right? A DATE! He’d totally asked her on a date. I mean, sure, okay, it’s not like a date date. It’s more like a “thanks for making me a birthday gift” and hangout as “friends” kind of date, but a friend date still has the word date in it! So it totally counts!

\---

“You said **Friend**?” Alya repeated before exploding into a mess of laughter. Marinette had to hold the phone away from her ear as her friend turned into a hyena.

“Wait, wait,” Alya contined, trying to stop laughing.  “Okay, you say, haha, ‘you want to be his friend’, which I guess you weren’t? but anyway, then what did he say?” Marinette wasn’t really loving Alya at the moment.

“He said, ‘Gee Marinette that’s a weird thing to say,’ then he jumped out the window to avoid my awkwardness,” She said sarcastically. Alya let out some more laughs.

“Oh please, it couldn’t have been any worse than usual.”

Marinette went on to describe the subsequent dress trying on episode, then she finally got to the date!

“Oh My God Marinette! This is it!” Alya cheered. “This is the perfect moment!”

“I know, I know!” Marinette replied giddily.

“I mean, sure, it’s not a real date,” Alya added.

“ _Thanks Alya.”_ Marinette commented flatly.

“Buuuutttt,” she continued, “if you play your cards right you could turn it into a real date!”

Marinette tried to respond with real words, but instead let out something more like high-pitch squealing.

“But, it _is_ you and Adrien we’re talking about here. So maybe we should, you know, practice some beforehand.”

“Right, yeah, practice is good.” Marinette agreed.

“Good, so, when’s the date?”

“Tuesday night.”

“ _TUESDAY_? That’s only two days from now!” she sighed, “We’re gonna have to get on this. Tomorrow is date prep day, okay?”

“Right! Date prep day! Got it!”

“Yes, so is talking with him getting any better? How did that go tonight?”

“Uh, well, I think I figured it out! I only get nervous when I’m first around him, or when he’s complementing me, or when he’s looking at me. But otherwise I can talk just fine!” She could sense her friend’s disappointment.

“You mean all the things that happen on a date? Besides all of those, you’re fine?”

Marinette hadn’t really thought about it like that.

“Oh no,” she realized, “Alya, those are **all** the things that happen on a date!”

“Yeah, I literally just said that.”

“What do I do!? I won’t be able to talk to him! I’ll be totally mute on our first date!”

“Ugh, Relax girl. Date prep day! Remember? We’ll work it out tomorrow.”

“Right, tomorrow. We’ll work it out…” She was still unsure.

“Yeah… So, how’s the paper coming along?” Alya asked, changing the subject.

_Oh no, the paper. They got nothing done, like, totally nothing. She still hadn’t even read what she was supposed to._

“We did…nothing.”

“Seriously? You guys spend all your time flirting?”

“I don’t know if crying into his shoulder counts as flirting.”

“Heh, well still, maybe that’s better. Freaking Nino is all business. Which is fine, if he actually did his reading. I’ve spent like an hour and a half waiting for him to get caught up. I swear that boy is so lazy. Two hours in and we’ve barely drafted an outline.”

“Oh haha,” Marinette commented, “Yeah, you’re partner not doing their reading. What a pain.”

Alya just sighed. “Anyway, I still have to do the math homework. I’ll text you okay.”

“Okay.”

“See ya!”

“Bye!”

Marinette walked over and collapsed into her desk chair. She swivled around to see her kwami floating above her history textbook, arms crossed.

“Marinette,” Tiki commanded, “I know you’ve had an… exciting day, but you really need to do your reading!”

“Nyuuu,” she groaned, “Tiki, can’t I just put it off for tomorrow. I’m so exhausted.”

“Come on! You and Adrien were supposed to draft your paper, but you didn’t do the reading, remember? What’s he gonna say when you’re still unprepared? Hm?”

Marinette stared in the stubborn kwami’s eyes.

“Fine,” she finally said, “I’ll do the reading.” Tiki smiled as Marinette opened the textbook and began to read.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The take away from this chapter is Skater dresses are cool and I kind of want to make one now.


	3. Rooftop Chat-ter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien deals out justice. And by deals out justice, I mean awkwardly confronts his father's secretary. 
> 
> Marinette heroically continues her crusade to avoid her homework. But reality sets in and she must get down to business. But will she be able to do it? Or will a certain cat ruin all her plans (and peace of mind)?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bumped up the rating because swearing.
> 
> I thought about splitting this chapter into two chapters, so that it would appear as if I am doing more work. But like, then I'd have to write two summaries, and that itself is too much work...

Gabriel Agreste, as it turns out, didn’t actually need Adrien at all. He had needed him to clarify some medical data, but in the end, Nathalie had found the medical file and Adrien was no longer necessary. As if Adrien would have even known if his shot record was up to date.

Of course, he could have simply texted all of this to Adrien, instead of dragging him all the way home for no reason. But it didn’t surprise him. His father had never really valued his free time. Such a waste. It did, however, present an opportunity for Adrien to take care of some important business.

When he had gotten through the front door, he had been greeted by Nathalie who very unceremoniously told him his presence was no longer required. This didn’t exactly put him in the greatest of moods.

“Nathalie,” he said before she was able to leave, “could you do me a favor?”

“That depends,” she said coolly, “what do you need?”

“Oh, well,” Adrien replied, trying to find the best words for this, “Do you remember that scarf my father game me on my last birthday?” She shot him a nervous glance.

“Oh, yes, I believe I do recall-“

“Good,” Adrien cut her off, “I’ve been thinking. I love it so much what I would like to have few more.”

“Oh…well that’s-“

“I’m thinking one in green and one in red. You think you can manage that, right Nathalie?” He said, giving her his best, genuine smile.

She opened her mouth as if to say something, but then closed it again. She clenched her hand into a fist and turned to him.

“I will,” she hesitated, “see what I can do about that.”

_Oh?_ _And what exactly is she going to see to? Kidnapping Marinette and putting her into forced labor?_

“On second thought,” he pivoted, “why don’t you just give me the name of the creator. Perhaps I can pick something out from a catalog.”

“Ah, yes well,” she said, stalling. “I’m afraid I didn’t catch the name of the maker.”

Why wasn’t she just admitting it?

“Oh really? That’s so unlike you.” Adrien responded.

She should just own up to it, Adrien had already forgiven her on the walk here.  

“Yes well,” she said uncomfortably, “that had been a very busy week.”

Just ADMIT it!

“Hm,” Adrien said, thinking of where to take this next. Passive aggression wasn’t his natural talent, but he had learned, and learned well. He hated it though. It was so deceptive and mean spirited. He hated himself a bit for using it now. But he really needed her to own up.

 “Well you know, there’s a girl in my class who often wears things of a similar style. It’s very distinct. But…no…it can’t be the same. She _makes_ all of her clothes.”

“Is that so,” was her only response.

“Yes,” he said more sternly, “that **is** so.” That had gotten her attention. Nathalie took in a deep breath as she faced him.

“Adrien,” she said slowly, nervously, “do you know-“

“Know that you stole the gift?” He finished for her, in an angry tone. “Yes, I do.” Nathalie’s eyes dropped down to the floor.

“Adrien, I-, I’m sorry you had to find out.”

_She’s sorry, that I FOUND OUT!?_ _Like **that** was the great wrong here?_

“You shouldn’t be apologizing to me!” He fumed, “You should be apologizing to Marinette! It was _her_ gift you stole!”

“Yes, of course.” He waited for her to say something else, anything else. But she kept silent. He gripped the strap of his bag and began to walk off.

“Adrien wait,” she called out to him. He turned back to her. She looked, scared. Normally she looked so serious, bored even. He had never seen as much as a glimpse of emotion out of her. But now, there was genuine worry in her face. Her eyes were wide and she was, was that sweat? He wasn’t convinced that Nathalie even had sweat glands.

“I apologize to you, and your friend,” she added quickly, “if there’s something I can do to make it up to you then, just name it. But, please, just don’t mention this to your father.”

Adrien let out a sigh and turned away from her. What was he doing? Exacting some sort of sadistic revenge on her or something? He could have just told her he found out and left it at that. But no, he had to make her sweat it out. He was acting like Chloe. Like a brat. He didn’t want to scare her. He just wanted…what did he even want anyway…he couldn’t remember anymore.

“Nathalie, look. I’m sorry I was like that just now. I’m not going to tell my father, okay. Don’t worry.” Her face seemed to relax after those words.

“I just wish,” he continued, “that you would have told me. I would have been okay if you just said you’d forgot.”

“Yes,” she replied, regaining her composure, “I know my actions were, inexcusable. And I am very sorry for them. I meant what I said about making it up to you. If there is something you need just ask.”

Then, Adrien got an idea. Of course, this was perfect.

“Actually,” he said in a much lighter tone, “I think there is something you can do. I told Marinette, uh, the girl who made the scarf, that I would take her out to dinner, as a thank-you. This Tuesday. If I could get you to make us a reservation that would be fantastic.”

 “Oh, of course. I can do that easily.” She said. This was nothing for her. She did that kind of thing all the time. “Where would like to go?”

“Oh, um,” Adrien considered this. He hadn’t really thought of a venue yet. “I’m not sure. What do you think?”

“How about Salle des Machines? It is not too casual and not too formal. It ought to be a good fit for a thank-you dinner.” She suggested. Adrien smiled at her.

“Yes! That sounds perfect!”

“Alright then, I will make a reservation for you and your friend.”

“Thank you so much Nathalie.”

“Of course. And please extend to your friend my sincerest of apologies.”

Adrien gave her a kind nod before scampering off to his room.

\---

_The first session of the National Convention was held on 20 September 1792. The following day, amidst profound silence, the proposition was put to the assembly, "That royalty be abolished in France" and was carried with cheers. On the 22nd came the news of the Battle of Valmy. On the same day it was decreed that "in future the acts of the assembly shall be dated First Year of the French Republic"._

Marinette’s head was starting to throb.

_Three days later the corollary was added, to guard against federalism, that "the French republic is one and indivisible". A republic had been proclaimed, but it remained to enact a republican government._

Was any of this even making sense?

_When the Convention met the military situation was undergoing an extraordinary transformation that seemed to confirm the Girondin prophecies of easy victory. After Valmy the Prussians withdrew to the frontier, and in November French troops occupied the left bank of the Rhine. The Austrians, who had besieged Lille in October, were defeated by Dumouriez at the Battle of Jemappes on 6 November and evacuated the Austrian Netherlands._

“Uuuggggghhhhhh,” Marinette groaned as she pushed her chair away from her desk. “Tiiikiii,” she moaned, “This isn’t working at all. I have no idea what it’s talking about!”

“Well,” Tiki began to say, “Maybe that’s because you’re reading the Wikipedia page instead of your textbook.” Marinette stared at her little floating friend.

“But,” she protested, “the Wikipedia entry is only one page.” Tiki swirled around and landed on her history text book. She jammed her arm down at it.

“You’re supposed to read the textbook. It’s written for you to understand.” Marinette sullenly rolled her chair over near the book. She picked it up and examined the cover.

“It’s written to put me to sleep.”

Tiki huffed. “Honestly Marinette, I’ve seen you work for a whole day straight on your designs. But you can’t even take a measly hour to read?”

“But Tiki, designing is different. When I’m making it, time just seems to melt away. I don’t even notice that the day is gone. But when I’m reading, _that_ ,” she gestured at the textbook in her hand, “I notice every second that ticks by. It’s torture.” She threw her exhausted body back into the seat and let her head drape back, staring at the ceiling. This was just too much. Too much happened today. The last thing she wanted to do was read a boring old textbook. She just wanted to lie down, maybe take a nice warm bath, or just go to sleep. Her bed looked awfully comfy now that she was thinking about it.

Tiki frowned. “Come on Marinette. This is the French Revolution! They overthrow the monarchy. They end feudalism. The Reign of Terror. Napoleon. This is big stuff. Aren’t you interested in it?” Marinette just gave a lazy shrug.

Tiki crossed her arms. She flew over to Marinette and plopped down right between her eyes. Marinette winced at the impact of the little red kwami.

“Well I’m not going to let you sleep until you get _something_ done,” the stern bug said defiantly. Marinette groaned louder this time.

“Fine,” she relented. She held the book back up to her face and opened to the chapter on the National Assembly. She read silently for would could have been only 3 minutes before sighing again.

“This makes no sense,” She complained, “What the heck even is a Girondin?”

“Don’t you have notes from class?” Tiki suggested. Actually, she did.

“Good point Tiki,” Marinette said as she rolled her chair over to her backpack. She opened it up and dug out her history notebook. She held it up.

_Great_ , she thought, _now I get to read to prepare myself to read_. It was going to be a long night.

\---

Chat loved the night air. He had watched the sunset over the horizon and was now basking in what colorful light remained. Beautiful purples and dark blues faded into darkness as the night engulfed the sky. Chat was taking it all in. He hadn’t thought he’d be going out again today as Chat. But after being dragged home from his study session, just to be curtly dismissed by his father, he really needed to just relax. And a strut around town as Chat always loosened him up. Plus it always boosted his mood. Even if Ladybug wouldn’t be joining him tonight.

_Besides_ , he thought, _I never really did finish my patrol._

Let’s see, he had stopped patrolling, where? Near Marinette’s parent’s bakery, that’s right. He supposed he should resume from there. He stood up from the roof he was lounging on and causally strode over in the direction of the bakery.

Within minutes he had arrived on the roof. He hopped down near the balcony immediately above the bakery. Marinette’s balcony. Right. He had forgotten that she had a super cool little balcony that was connected to her room. He plopped himself down on it and checked out her setup. There were several green plants scattered around, a little canopy with lights attached to it hanging overhead, a little makeshift table, and a little pink folding chair. Not bad. As unsure as he was about Marinette, but he had to admit, she had style. He leaned over the railing to check the streets below. Nope, no crime here. Of course there wasn’t.

He glanced back at the chair before deciding that now was a good enough time for a break as any. He’d just checked and there was no danger. Yup, this was the safest street corner in Paris. All thanks to Chat Noir. He deserved a break. Besides how many chairs did he expect to find lying out on the rooftops? Very few.

He flopped down into the chair and stretched his arms to the sky. He just then noticed how tired he was. Not physically per say, but sitting in that chair, the nice cool air against his skin, the comforting moon light, he could really go for a nap right now. Although, napping at night was basically just sleeping wasn’t it?

He let out a big yawn.  Maybe a quick nap wouldn’t be too bad. He threw his hands behind his head and slouched in the chair to where he was, kind of, lying down. He shut his eyes and quickly drifted off to sleep.

\---

He woke abruptly at the sound of a muffled voice. Surprised, he reeled back in the chair and turned toward the source. The window latch to Marinette’s room. She was coming out. _SHIT!_

He glanced down to see if he was Chat or Adrien. Black suit. He let out a huge sigh of relief. _Thank god,_ he thought, _That would have been a disaster_.

The window latch was thrown open and Marinette’s head popped up.

“I’m just getting some air,” she said to…herself? “I’m **not** putting this off.” Chat gave a polite wave to her as she emerged from the room below. But despite not trying to hide at all, she somehow didn’t see him as she sauntered over to the balcony. Maybe it was too dark?

_She’s not very perceptive_ , Chat noted. He thought about calling out to her, but instead held his tongue. _Let’s see how long it takes for her to notice_. It should at least be entertaining.

Marinette stared out into the night sky longingly. She wished she could just turn into Ladybug and dash into the night. Ladybug didn’t have homework. But Tiki would never allow that. She was stuck with this assignment. Ugh. She held up her history notebook and opened it to the lesson on the French Revolution.

“Let’s take it from the top,” she told herself. “Okay, so, it all started when comp-, uh,” she glanced down at her notes, “-troller-General of Finance Charles Alexandre de Calonne announced that France was broke. Which was a real surprise to people, because public records from just a little while before said  that things were going okay. But they weren’t and Calonne wanted to enact some reforms.”

Chat listened patiently to Marinette’s monolog. It was kind of nice. Like a good old fashioned bed-time story, except about history. _You know,_ he thought, _when I think about it, her voice sounds almost just like…._

“One of the reforms Calonne wanted,” She continued, “was a land tax. But land taxes needed get approved by…parliament, or whatever, and they didn’t want that. So facing opposition, King Louie XVI called the Estates General for May, 1789. And the Estates General was, uh…” She flipped back and forth threw her notebook until she finally found the page.

“Right, okay. The Estates General was a collective body that represented each of the ‘estates’ in France at the time. The First Estate was the Clergy, priests and bishops and those kinds of guys. The Second Estate was…the nobility. Oh, so like, Dukes and stuff. And the Third Estate was just everyone else.

One of the people elected to the Third Estate was the thinker and clergyman Abbé Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, who, just months before, had written a pamphlet called What Is the Third Estate?, which made the argument that the Third Estate was itself a nation and had no need for the other two estates at all. Huh. So I guess it’s not that surprising that the Third Estate broke away and declared itself the new National Assembly, making it the main power in France. And then…” She looked down and read more of her notes before continuing.

_Come on Marinette_ , Chat mentally encouraged, _You know what happens next. The Tennis Court Oath._

“Okay, so, umm. The king tried to shut down the new National Assembly by closing their meeting hall, but they instead met in the king’s own tennis court. Then they took the Tennis Court Oath. Which was an Oath to-,” She squinted down at her notes, “ ‘not to separate, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the constitution of the kingdom is established.’” She quoted.

“And then they abolished Feudalism. And then the Storming of the Bastille happened.”

She let out moan as she buried her head into her notebook. She’d spent so much time trying to remember this junk and she hadn’t even gotten to the National Convention! She’s never going to get caught up!

“Actually,” A smooth voice said from behind, “Feudalism was abolished after the Storming of the Bastille.”

Marinette jumped and little out a little yelp. She whirled around to find a smiling Chat sitting in her chair.

“CHAT!” She yelled, “You scared me you jerk!”

“Sorry Princess,” Chat laughed, “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

_Interrupt! Had he been listening the whole time!_ Marinette got a little embarrassed that Chat had been listening to her talk to herself. But seriously, **what** was he doing here? On her balcony! Was he stalking her or something?

“Wow, running into you twice in one day,” she said. “ _What_ a coincidence.”

“Hm, I guess my attractiveness just draws us together.” He said, then grinned, then winked.

_God._ This was unbearable. How can she politely ask him to leave?

“Right, well, I really have to read this stuff. So if you could just-“

“You’re taking about the Revolution right?” he cut her off. “You have a school project on it or something.”

“Yes I do, so I really-“

“Cool! What’s it over?”

“Uh,” she wished he’d stop cutting her off and take the hint, “well, it’s over the National Convention.”

“Group project or individual?” He asked.

“Group.”

“Ah, very cool very cool. I’ve always found group projects to be kind of a pain. Well, in school that is. I guess you could call Ladybug and me a group, but that’s anything but painful. Well, that last Akuma we fought did pack a punch. But so do I.” He winked again. He seemed very pleased with himself. He was really enjoying this back and forth.

_God is he just going keep prattling on? I need him to leave so I can do this._

“Yeah, well, I really need to get caught up. So if you could just-“

“Oh are you behind on your reading?” he asked in a teasing tone.

“Yeah, I just said that. Now if-“

“How disappointing, and here I was thinking that Miss Marinette Dupain-Cheng was a studious student.” He said playfully. Marinette frowned.

“Oh? What gave you that idea?” She asked matter-a-fact-ly.

“Well, I probably shouldn’t tell you this. But under this mask, I’m secretly your science teacher.” He joked. Marinette smirked.

“My science teacher is a woman.”

“The disguise is _very_ good.” They both laughed.

“Well okay, Ms. Mendeleiev. You’re much more limber than I gave you credit for.”

Chat stood up and swung his leg onto the banister. He grabbed his toes and smiled at her.

“You would not believe the physics of this pose.” He jested.

“I think I can believe it actually.” She replied back self-assured.

“Oh, well then, why don’t we see what the lady can do,” He challenged. Marinette scoffed as she raised her leg over the banister to match his. Then she casually leaned her torso over outstretched leg, until her head was resting near her knee.

“How’s this?” She asked lazily. Chat’s eyes grew wide. He, really, **really** , was not expecting that. What was she a gymnast now too? He opened his mouth to say something, but his jaw just hung there instead of forming an actual word.

She was a total enigma.

Marinette looked at Chat’s astonished face and straightened up. Well that shut him up. She released her foot from the banister and Chat followed suit.

“Wow Marinette,” Chat gawked, “you’re… really flexible.”

“Yeah well,” she boasted, “I work out, you know.” She said. She flexed her biceps, giggling.

“Very impressive,” Chat complemented.

“But I do really need to read this,” She restated, waving her notebook, “I forgot to do it this morning and I totally let my partner down.”

“Eh,” Chat replied dismissively, “I don’t think he minded.”

Marinette paused and squinted at him. Chat realized his mistake too late.

 “How’d you know my partner was a guy?” She asked suspiciously. Was he _actually_ stalker her?  

_Shit_.

“Oh uh,” he scrambled for an explanation.

“Chat? Why did you know that?” She said more sternly. He turned away from her to hide is guilty face.

“Well, uh, after I left you this morning. Uh, I saw some guy around your age, blonde, kinda tall. I just kinda figured, you know, that’s who it’d be.” He looked at her through his peripheral vision. Was she buying it?

Apparently she was.

“Oh, yeah, that was him.” She said quietly. Chat breathed a silent sigh of relief.

“He seemed like a-“ What should he even say about himself. “-nice guy.”

“He is.” She said in a hushed tone. She had suddenly gotten very quiet. Five seconds ago she’d been so hot-headed, but now…

_Is it because of Adrien?_ Chat wondered.

“Yeah, he seemed, kind of familiar,” Chat said as a joke for himself.

“Well you can hardly avoid seeing Adrien Agreste.” She piped up, “His picture is all over the place. You’ve probably seen it around the city.”

_Ugh,_ Chat sighed, _Wasn’t that the truth._ Adrien had become, let’s say done, with the whole, having his face everywhere thing. It was kind of fun at first, but that petered out quickly. Now it was mostly an annoyance and nuisance. People so loved to point it out to him. It got old.

 “Hm, so he’s you’re partner huh? Tough luck there. In the pictures he always looks like such an air-headed pretty boy.” Chat commented light-heartedly. He’d always joked with Nino about him looking like a stereotypical dumb model in his photos. Nino usually responded that he looked “totally like himself.” Then he’d ask him he needed some ice for the burn. Thanks Nino. What a great friend. Marinette, on the other hand, was not so pleased with his commentary.

“He’s NOT Dumb!” She said defensively. “He’s incredibly smart! He puts both of us to shame!”

_Oh is that so?_

“Really now? He doesn’t look all that smart to me,” Chat joked, “Rich kid like him? He probably just pays someone to do his work for him.” Not gonna lie, Adrien seriously considered doing this from time to time. Not on anything important, but for busy work stuff. Like one of his countless, worthless math homeworks. He’d pay a decent price for it.

“I can’t believe you’re so **judgemental**!” She fumed. _Wow, she is really getting worked up over this._

“Adrien is super smart, and super great, and would never do something like that! Because, unlike _you_ , he’s virtuous!”

_Marinette thinks I’m virtuous?_ Chat wondered, but he didn’t let it show. He was enjoying pressing this.

“Virtuous huh? Not sure if that really counts for much. I bet I could kick his butt.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure Chat! He’s a world-class fencer, you know!”

_So, I guess she knows I fence. World-class is kind of a stretch though._

“Oh please, I can surpass any fence with this, no sweat,” he boasted holding his contracted pole out.

“Whatever Chat! No matter what you say Adrien is just way better then you! He’s out of your league kitty.” She silently cursed herself for calling him ‘Kitty’. That was a Ladybug thing, not a Marinette thing.

Chat didn’t seem to notice though. He was too busy trying to figure out why anyone would prefer normal Adrien over superhero Chat Noir. I mean, Adrien is great and handsome and everything, but he was CHAT-FREAKING-NOIR! Savior of the innocent! Protector of Paris! Sauvé gentleman crime-fighter! Partner of the incredible Ladybug! How could she not go for that!? Did people just not like him? He’d always acknowledge ladybug’s popularity over his; that was to be expected, after all she _is_ Ladybug. But he always thought, you know, he was popular too! That he had something of a following. Maybe a quieter, shyer following. But still a following! Yet here he was, getting upstaged by his lesser half. It was unbelievable! Adrien over Chat? Why the hell would anyone like Adrien over Chat!? He didn’t even like Adrien over Chat! This entire ordeal was absurd.

“What’re you, in his fan club or something?” He blurted out mindlessly. Marinette reeled back.

“NO! I’m not in his fan club! He’s just-, I mean-, We’re-, He’s my friend!”

“Friends huh? Sounds like you really admire the guy.” He wasn’t really even paying attention to what he was saying now. He still couldn’t believe Chat wasn’t popular with girls his age. His age! Now that he thought about it, Marinette didn’t have a poster of Chat or anything. Did they even sell Chat specific merchandise? And Alya ran the Ladybug blog. But was there a Chat Noir blog? Ugh, this is ridiculous.

“Well maybe I DO admire the guy!” Marinette shot back, “Why are _you_ so interested? What are you, jealous?” 

Chat heard that loud and clear. _Wait, admire…admire. She means like…_ He was piecing it together. The scarf, the nervousness, awkward smiles, all of those times she had commented on his ‘awesomeness’. Did Marinette like Adrien?

Chat’s face began to redden at the idea.

_Wait, wait. Maybe I’m just getting ahead of myself_ , Chat considered. Maybe she just meant admired as admired, not like. Adrien had some admirable traits after all. He was in the fashion scene; no doubt she’d admire that. His family had a lot of wealth, that’s something to be desired. He’d actually done the reading for the project, that one probably wasn’t what she was talking about… Maybe she just admired the kind of person he was. That seemed possible, right?

He looked back up at her. She was glaring, motionless at him with two big, wide blue eyes.

_Oh my god,_ she thought, _is he blushing?? IS HE ACTUALLY JEOLOUS!?_ This was bad. She was expecting, I don’t know, a joke, or a comment, or something…but actual, genuine embarrassment!? What does she do with that? Did Chat like Marinette? No, no, no! Chat isn’t supposed to like Marinette! That’s-, It’s not-, NO!

_Oh god what do I do?_ She panicked. She let out an awkward laugh.

“Ummm,” she said uncomfortably. “I, uh, probably should go.”

“Right, yeah, me too,” Chat replied with equal discomfort. “I’ll see you around then.”

“Yeah, around” She repeated monotonously. Chat gave her a curt nod before leaping off the room onto the streets below.

Marinette let out her exhaustion as she sank down to her knees. Today had been all over the place. It started fine, then became a train-wreck, then it became a dream-come-true, and now it’s going to end as a much smaller train-wreck. She was just so tired. She shook her head at the sky. She’ll deal with this all tomorrow. She just wanted to pass out more than anything right now.

She gathered up her notebook and crept back into her room.

Tomorrow, everything will be worked out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huh. This chapter didn't accomplish any of the things I wanted it to and instead set up conflicts I hadn't planned for. Great. 
> 
> Anyway, okay, so, I know that had a bunch of random French history just kinda awkwardly inserted into it, but listen, I'm pretty sure I'm going somewhere with this, so just trust me. You can trust me, right? (Don't answer that) Just sit back and enjoy the ride.


	4. Trial runs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone's nervous about their dates and such. Practicing doesn't seem to help all that much. Also, Adrien has a minor moral crisis.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you see that? The chapter name is Trial run, which means I have actually incorporated trials into this fic so HA!
> 
> There will me more actual trials later on, but for now this will suffice.

Adrien was having an, alright day so far. Sure, he’d stayed up way too late contemplating if Marinette liked him or not, trying to replay memories for any clues, that sort of thing. He hadn’t come up with a definitive answer by the time it had reached 2 o’clock in the morning. But despite staying up late he didn’t really feel all that tired.

“Bro,” Nino greeted as he plopped down on the bench next to Adrien, “you not eating lunch?” Adrien shrugged.

“I had a big breakfast.”

“hm,” Nino replied. He eyed Adrien for a solid minute.

“Something up?” Adrien asked finally.

“Wellll…” Nino probed, “Don’t you have something to tell me?”

“Uhhh,” Adrien stalled as he tried to think of things he wasn’t telling Nino. Well, he could tell him he was Chat Noir, but that probably wasn’t what Nino had in mind. “I think the school’s radio station is good?”

“Why thank you,” he replied placing a prideful hand on his chest, “but no. Wrong answer.” Adrien shrugged.

“That’s all I got,” he admitted. Nino pouted at him.

“Well, I heard down through the grape vine that you’ve got a hot date.” He declared.

“I have a what?”

“HOT, DATE!” Nino repeated loudly. Adrien glanced around to make sure no one was staring.

“I don’t have a hot date. What are you talking about?” He questioned. Nino gave him a suspicious look.

“A little bird told me, that you have a date with one Marinette.”

_A little bird huh? Let me consult all the possibilities of who that might be. Let’s see there’s:_

  1. _Alya_
  2. _Alya_
  3. _Literally only Alya_



 

“Oh, right. That.” Adrien said flatly. “It’s not a date, it’s a thank-you dinner.”  Nino scoffed and threw his arms behind his head.

“Whatever you wanna call it, man.”

“I call it a thank-you dinner,” Adrien repeated.

“Okay, Okay.  Man, you don’t have to be so stern about it. Jeez, shouldn’t you be happy? Marinette is super cute.” 

Well, Adrien couldn’t really deny that. Marinette was pretty cute. But even still, after last night, Adrien couldn’t really see a lot of good coming out the dinner. He’d strongly considered canceling the whole thing. If she did like him, then, you know, probably going out to dinner with her isn’t the best idea. Right? And if she didn’t like him, then well, maybe this whole dinner thing is sending the wrong message. I mean, she’d seemed pretty eager to go with him, right? He didn’t really remember. He tried to remember earlier last night, when he had asked her to go.

Let’s see, he’d just gotten the message that he needed to leave. He said he had to leave. She was still wearing that dress. _That dress_ , he remembered. She looked really good in the dress. Normally he only saw her wearing casual, everyday clothes. But in that dress…

 _She was **fine** ,_ he found himself thinking. He shook that thought immediately. He was supposed to be remembering her reaction, not mentally checking her out. Damn hormones.

“Dude, you there?” Nino asked. He waved his hand in front of Adrien’s face until he swatted it down.

“Yeah, sure, Marinette is cute,” he reluctantly agreed. It wasn’t a lie at least. Nino looked dissatisfied.

“Okay, but you don’t seem too happy about it. Dude, what’s going on?”

Adrien would have loved to tell Nino about his suspicious about Marinette. Except, ever since Nino and Alya because…a thing? Where they dating or what? A thing. Anyways, ever since then, Adrien couldn’t trust Nino worth a damn. Everything he said made its way to Alya one way or another. No matter how much Nino promised, Alya would always know within a few days. Sure, she’s a reporter or whatever, but seriously, Nino could be showing some more resolve here.

No, he couldn’t tell Nino. Better off just feeding him some different drama.

“Sorry, it’s not her. It’s just…Did Alya tell you the context of the dinner?” Adrien asked.

“No!” Nino replied instantly. He leaned in a bit with interest. “What happened?”

“Well,” Adrien began, “you remember my last birthday?”

“Uh, well seeming as I got turning into a weird bubble blowing nightmare, No, I actually don’t remember much of it.” They both laughed and continued.

“Well, my father got me that scarf, remember that?”

“Vaguely.”

“Right, so, it turns out it wasn’t quite so from the heart after all.” Nino raised an eyebrow.

“What’cha mean?”

“Marinette made it.” Nino frowned.

“I’m not following.”

“It was Marinette’s gift. He stole it.” Nino’s eyes drew wide and he jumped back in his seat.

“WHAT!? Are you serious dude? That’s so messed up!” Adrien nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, but it’s all sorted out now.” He said sullenly.

“Still man, wow. Marinette made it the whole time.” Nino repeated to himself still in disbelief.

“Yup, hence the dinner,” Adrien finished, wrapping up his point.

“Why didn’t she say anything?” Nino asked with confusion. Adrien could have given him the whole explanation, but it was much easier to just shrug. “he stole it. Man…” Nino paused and stared off into space.

“Oh, so hey man,” Nino piped up again. “What are you gonna wear?” Adrien turn to him what a questioning expression. Since when did Nino care about that?

“Uh, I’m not sure. _Why_?”

“Yeah, well, I, uh, might be going on a date with Alya Tuesday also,” Nino admitted.

“I guess it’ll be a busy night for both us of then.”

“But seriously dude, what should I wear?” Nino asked desperately.  Adrien scanned his friend up and down.

“How serious is this date?”

“Uhh, well. I mean, she agreed. And we’ve been hanging out a lot and-“

“I meant like where are you taking her?”

“Oh yeah well,” Nino looked sheepish, “I’m actually not taking her anywhere. She’s taking me somewhere.” Somehow that didn’t surprise Adrien in the slightest.

“Oh-kay. Well, any idea what kind of place it’ll be?”

“Knowing Alya,” Nino laughed, “I have no idea.” Adrien sighed.

“Just wear a collared shirt and slacks. That should be good enough,” he advised. “Or you can just ask her if you’re not sure.”

“Collared shirt, got it.” He took off his cap. “Should I ditch the hat?” He asked anxiously. Adrien gave him a look.

“What do you think?”

“I guess so.” Nino shifted uncomfortably. “I’m just getting nervous about it is all.”

“Why? You know Alya. It shouldn’t be that nerve racking.”

“Because man, Alya is so like, in control. And like, sometimes it’s totally normal, but any time something… You know, like, kind of…romantic happens. I totally just freeze up.”

“Ooo lala, you two getting romantic?” he teased. Nino’s cheeks grew bright red.

“NO! Not like that! It’s more…well like, so last weekend we were supposed to meet up to work on the history project right?”

“Yeah.”

“And so she comes to my room, and I’ve like, cleaned it and stuff, and I’ve taken a shower and everything is all nice. And she makes a comment about how clean everything is, but you know, she says it in her own way. You know how she is.”

Adrien didn’t really know what he was talking about but he nodded anyway.

“And so, I was just like ‘yeah I cleaned up.’ and she says ‘You clean up nice,’ and then she smiles at me, but it’s not a normal smile, this was more like, a heat wave.”

“A heat wave?” Adrien asked skeptically.

“Yeah, it was all, you know, flirty and stuff. Like what am I supposed to do with that?”

 _Roll with it,_ Adrien thought.

“What did you do?”  
“I freak out man. I start talking about the assignment and bust out my notes.”

“You bust out your notes?” Adrien asked in amused disbelief.

“Y-yeah.”

“Nino, she was totally giving you an opening, you know.”

“I _know_ that, but I wasn’t prepared for it! I need some warning man! I’m not good with that romantic stuff...”

Adrien pinched the bridge between his eyes. _Nino, Nino, Nino_ , _you gotta get it together man_.

“Well at least you got started on the assignment. Marinette and I haven’t even started.”

“Oh, yeah, well. I actually hadn’t read my section before she got there,” Nino admitted. “I spent most of the time reading.” Adrien frowned at him.

“Seriously Nino? I’m finding it hard to believe that she’d _want_ to date you,” he teased.

“I know! That’s why it’s super important that I get this right. No more choking!”

“Don’t worry, you’ll do great!”

“Right, I’ll do great….are you sure I should ditch the hat?”

Adrien rolled his eyes.

\---

Marinette sat at the picnic table opposite her “date.” She tried to maintain eye contact with the picture of Adrien spread across the open page of the magazine held up to where date’s head was supposed to be, but it was all too ridiculous. 

“Well hey there Marinette,” The person holding the magazine said in a jokingly deep voice, “aren’t you looking hot today.”

“It’s like 30°C, I can’t help but be hot,” she teased. Alya dropped the magazine from her face and smirked.

“Now is that something you’d say to Adrien?” Marinette could barely entertain the thought of saying that to him without dropping dead on the spot.

“If he meets me in the form of a picture I would.” They both let out a laugh. While this trial run wasn’t really helping, it was nice for them to just hang out.

“Okay, okay,” Alya stated, “For real this time. Pretend like I’m him, okay?” Marinette nodded as Alya lifted the magazine in front of her face.

“Hi Marinette, you look nice,” the deep voice said.

“Hi Adrien,” Marinette replied sweetly. “You look…well colored.”

“Why thank you, I don’t always have this smile printed on my face, you know?” They laughed again.

“Alya, I appreciate the effort, but can’t take this seriously.” Alya sighed as she dropped magazine down onto the table.

“Figures, I knew this wouldn’t work.”

“Sorry, maybe we can think of something else to do, we could go to the bakery and-“

“Oh,” Alya cut her off, “don’t worry. I have a backup planned.” Marinette’s eyebrows dropped.

“A backup?” she asked skeptically.

“That’s right, a backup. And here it comes now.” She pointed behind Marinette.

Marinette turned to see the two cheery faces of Nino and Adrien approaching. She grew wide-eyed as she snapped back towards her friend.

“Why!?” She asked frantically. Alya was clearly enjoying this.

“Well what’s better than the really thing?” She stated as if she wasn’t taking great pleasure out of it.

“Falling off a bridge! Getting eaten alive by cows!”

“Cows?”

But it was too late. Nino and Adrien were right behind her. Her shoulders tensed up so much that she could have sworn her shoulder blades were touching.

“Hey you two,” Alya greeted with a wave.

“Sup’ ladies.”

“Afternoon.”

 _Oh my god, he’s right behind me_ …

She didn’t turn to face them. Alya shot her a disapproving look.

“So, what’s goin’ on?” Nino asked casually.

“I was just about to tell you were to meet me tomorrow,” Alya said in a cool tone.

“O-oh yeah?” Nino replied much less causally.

“Are you two meeting up tomorrow?” Marinette asked innocently. “Are you working on the project?”

“Oh you haven’t heard?” Alya said in an overly dramatic tone. “Nino and I are going on a date tomorrow night. Sound familiar?” She winked.

Marinette straightened up.

“And who would I have heard _that_ from?” she questioned.

“Haha,” Alya laughed, “Nino here has to make up for the fact that he didn’t do the reading for the project last weekend,” she turned to him, “Isn’t that right Nino?”

He threw his hand back behind his neck.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll all caught up now though. Doesn’t that count for something?”

“Actually, it doesn’t.” She flashed a smile at him. He had to look away, too flirty.

“So,” he said trying to kill the mood as fast as possible, “where we going?”

“I thought we’d go to _cela endroit_.”

“Ah, yeah, I love that place,” he agreed.

“Good. How about you pick me up at 7 then?”

“I can do that,” he replied sheepishly. Marinette thought that it might have been more appropriate for _her_ to pick _him_ up, since she was clearly running the show. That was very much like Alya.

She caught Marinette looking at her and smiled devilishly.

_She isn’t going to do something, is she…_

“So what about you two,” Alya asked Adrien.

_OF COURSE SHE IS._

“Hm?” Adrien asked. Marinette still hadn’t looked at him, but from the sound of his voice he’d been zoned out.

“Were are you two going on your date?” Alya restated.

_OH MY GOD! Did she just call it a date? IN FRONT OF HIM! DAMNIT ALYA!_

“our-…” he trailed off. She held her breath and waited for him to say it. It wasn’t a date. He’d say it. Any second now. Any second.

But he didn’t. In fact he didn’t say anything. She finally looked up at him to see him deep in thought. He was totally in a different place right now.

“Yo, Adrien,” Nino called. “Quit zoning out.”

“Ah, oh,” Adrien snapped out of it, “sorry I just…have a lot to think about.”

“Where are you going to dinner?” Nino questioned.

“Hm?” Adrien said as if he’d never gotten that question before, “oh right.” He turned to Marinette. “It’s a place called Salle des Machines. I’ve never been but I’ve heard it’s good.”

“yeah,” Marinette piped up, “that’s grey! Er, glate! No, gret. Ugh.” She pushed her forehead into her palms as her friend shook her head.

“What time?” Alya asked for her.

“Uh, the reservation is for 7:15,” he said absent mindedly, “So I’ll come by around 6:40. Is that okay?”

Marinette just nodded, head still in hands.

“Good.” Adrien said and went back to staring off into space.

Nino and Alya exchanged confused looks.

“I guess we’ll see you later,” Nino announced as he dragged his friend off. Alya turned back to Marinette.

“Well that was super weird,” She said.

“Alya,” Marinette pleaded helplessly. “I said grey. GREY! I can’t have a two second conversation with him, how am I going to have a whole dinner with him!?”

Alya just smiled and picked the magazine off the table.

“Shall we try plan A again?”

\---

Adrien not so gracefully flopped down on his bed face first. He was exhausted but not tired. He rolled over on his back and stared at the ceiling. What the hell was he doing?

Plagg emerged from his hiding place in Adrien’s bag and stretched his little body. He lazily flew little circles around Adrien’s head.

“Sleeping during the day?” Plagg prodded, “I didn’t think humans were nocturnal.”

“Yeah well, I’m not getting much done be being awake.”

“Well you could be doing something useful, like getting me some Camembert.”

“Plagg, come on, this is serious.” Adrien threw his palms to his forehead, “I can’t go to dinner with Marinette!”

“Why not?” Plagg asked uninterested.

“Because, if she likes me then…well…obviously I shouldn’t go. It would be like a…” he didn’t want to say the word, “date. I can’t do that. I mean, what about Ladybug?”

“The girl who rejects you on a daily basis?”

“She doesn’t reject me! That’s just our playful back and forth!” Plagg looked unconvinced.

“Well I think you should go out with her,” Plagg said out of the blue.  Adrien straightened up.

“You what!?”

“You heard me.” Adrien was aghast.

“Why do you think that? I didn’t think you cared at all.”

“Look,” Plagg stated, landing on Adrien’s outstretched palm. “Marinette’s the baker’s daughter right?”

Adrien had never thought of Marinette as a baker’s daughter. That sounded really fairy tale-ish. Although, it was technically accurate.

“Yeah…”

“And bakers make little stuffed cakes, right?” Adrien didn’t like where this was going.

“Okay…”

“And some of those cakes are cheese filled wouldn’t you say?”

“I suppose…”

“So, if you go out with her, then we get unlimited cheese filled cakes. How could you reject that!?”

Adrien frowned and dropped the kwami from his hands. He should have known Plagg would go straight for the food.

“Plagg, this is serious. I’m not going to go out with Marinette so you can get some cakes.” Plagg floated back up to eye level of Adrien.

“What? You don’t want cakes too?”

“Grr, this isn’t about cakes! It’s about…the heart! I can’t see Marinette. What about Ladybug?”

“Ladybug never brings us cakes,” Plagg noted. Adrien ignored him.

“How can I, in good faith, go out with Marinette when I have feelings for Lady. It’s not fair to either of them. I should just call the whole thing off.” Plagg made a disapproving face at his super lame human.

“How is it unfair?” Plagg pressed back. “If you go out Marinette as Adrien, then hit on Ladybug as Chat. There’s really no cross-over.” Adrien looked at the little kwami with disbelief.

“Are you saying…that I should pursue them both?”

Plagg shrugged.

“I can’t do that! That would be…wrong!” Plagg sighed.

“Fine, instead of getting some cakes and eating them too, you’ll just be miserable.”

“Wait, no, hold on. You can’t seriously be justifying this by saying Adrien sees one girl and Chat sees another. Right? That’s totally amoral. Right?”

Plagg didn’t even respond; he just floated around waiting for Adrien to stop.

“Because that’s like,” Adrien continued, “not a good reason. Is it? I mean, sure, my personality changes pretty significantly, and, you know, Adrien Agreste can’t be caught dead in a leather suit. But I’m still fundamentally the same person. I can’t go around seeing multiple girls at once.”

Adrien always fancied himself to being a gentleman. And gentlemen don’t see multiple ladies at the same time, that much was obvious.

_But if I was instead two gentlemen…._

 No, no, no. He was not two different people. He was one person. With a double life. Two lives, one body….But, did that mean, he had two different hearts as well? No, that was crazy talk…and yet, it would solve this problem nicely…But both Chat and Adrien liked Ladybug, they clearly have the same heart there…but maybe that’s just a coincidence. A lot of people have their eyes on her…how about a different example. Take Nino for instance, Nino is Adrien’s best friend. No question there. But he wasn’t Chat’s best friend; heck Chat couldn’t really consider him a friend at all, honestly…So does that make Nino a half-friend? That doesn’t seem right. He’s his best friend after all….So then that makes Nino his best friend and not his best friend at the same time? Depending on which mask he’s wearing…Then, that should prove that Adrien and Chat are two distinct entities, right? So does that mean that, as Adrien, he could see Marinette, but still be avalible for Ladybug as Chat?

The logic was there, but it still didn’t feel right.

 _Do I even **want** to date Marinette? _ The question seemed so obvious now, but he really hadn’t thought much about it. He’d spent most his time wondering if it would be okay at all to date her.

_Well? Do I?_

The way he saw it there were pros and cons to it:

+

* * *

 

| 

Δ

* * *

   
  
---|---  
  
  * She is cute and always very nice to everyone.
  * She is smart and very protective of her friends.
  * She is a very talented fashion designer. Even his dad recognized her.
  * Her family is really nice and they all seem to have a good relationship.
  * She has a really cool rooftop balcony.



 

| 

  * He still didn’t have a good grasp on her personality.
  * She was mysteriously absent a lot and often disappeared (not that Adrien could talk, but he did have a pretty good reason).
  * She really struggled to even hold a basic conversation sometimes.
  * No Guarantee she isn’t into him just because of his modeling or family connections (Although he greatly doubted this).

  
  
 

Adrien turned these pros and cons around in his head for a while. But it was fruitless. He still couldn’t decide. He laid down flat on his bed and closed his eyes.

After a little while he finally spoke.

“You know what,” he announced to the ceiling in front of him, “I’ve decided.

I’m just going to do whatever feels right at the moment.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thus the problem was not really solved in anyway.
> 
> I apologize for the lack of movement in this chapter. I really needed something in between the last chapter and the next one and well this was it.  
> Okay, things are actually going to start picking up now, and like, plot will happen soon.  
> (Fun Fact: This story is actually supposed to have a plot.)  
> (Another fun fact: Did you know you can insert tables into the story? I totally wasn't sure if the plus/delta table would make in, but it totally did.)  
> [Updated Fun Fact: That last fact isn't fun at all. It totally didn't format the table correctly! Super lame. Let's see if I can fix it...]  
> {Update on Update: Whelp, much to the great disappointment of me, CSS isn't allowed so the table isn't going to look any cooler that it is now. Dang. Oh well, I tried to make it at least a little more readable.}


	5. Fine dining and Beating

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Date! Date! It's time for a Date!   
> But how will it go? Poorly? Spectacularly? Spectacularly poorly? 
> 
> Vote now on your phones!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick question. Sorry It's been so long since I updated. I'm having to figure out a bunch of junk because I'm going to school and what-not. 
> 
> Right, the question:   
> When you don't read stuff for a long time and it updates (whether it's a fic or a comic or tv show or whatever) do you go back and re-read/watch/listen previous stuff or do you just watch the new thing?
> 
> Because I have a tendency to just assume I remembered everything and not re-consume anything. I was wondering if that's normal, or if that makes me a super ultra mega triple werido...

And then it was time…

The entire morning had just flown by. It was like she didn’t even go to school, or have lunch, or walk home. Those all seemed liked faint memories now.

_It’s okay,_ she reassured herself, _it’s 6:20 now. I have 25 minutes to get ready._ The fact of the matter was she was already ready. She had put on one of her nice sundresses, shaved, showered, fixed her hair, put on her makeup, double checked her makeup, double checked her hair, straightened out her bag, picked out her shoes, (not in that order) etc. All before 5:45. Now she was just waiting.

_It’s okay, It’s okay, I got this. I just need to sit tight for 25 minutes without spilling something on myself or falling down. I can do that._ But could she really? She could barely drink the water she poured herself without dribbling some down her face.

_IT’S FINE. I’m just psyching myself out. I just need to relax. I’ll just wait downstairs, patently, then Adrien will arrive…then I’ll go to dinner with him, and not stutter, and make eye-contact, and he’ll be dressed up even nicer than he normally is, and I won’t make a fool of myself, and I’ll eat food without being gross…_ OH NO! The food! She had totally forgotten that she’d have to eat at the dinner! What the heck was she going to eat!?

She whipped out her phone.

**[6:22]: MARINETTE:**          Alya! I need you!

**[6:22]: MARINETTE:**          Alya COME ON

**[6:22]: MARINETTE:**          THIS IS LIFE OR DEATH MY GOD

**[6:22]: ALYA:**                       What’s it now?

**[6:22]: MARINETTE:** IM GOING TO DINNER

**[6:22]: ALYA:** What is he already there? Isn’t it early?

**[6:23]: MARINETTE:** No hes not here yet.

**[6:23]: MARINETTE:** But were going to go eat!

**[6:23]: ALYA:** Hence the dinner date

**[6:23]: ALYA:** Please tell me you’re not just realizing this now…

**[6:23]: MARINETTE:** WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO ORDER???

**[6:23]: ALYA:** Umm you usually figure out at the restaurant

**[6:23]: ALYA:** You have been to a restaurant before, right?

**[6:23]: MARINETTE:** yes, BUT WHAT IF I ORDER SOMETHING DUMB!?

**[6:24]: ALYA:**                       Something dumb?

**[6:24]: MARINETTE:** LIKE, WHAT IF IM ALLERGIC TO IT?

**[6:24]: MARINETTE:**          WHAT THEN?

**[6:24]: ALYA:**                 Are you even allergic to anything?

**[6:24]: MARINETTE:** THEN ILL HAVE TO GO TO THE HOSPITAL AND ADRIEN WILL HATE ME AND I                                                          WOULD HAVE RUINED THE DATE AND THERED NEVER BE ANY DO OVERS AND ID                                               BE IN THE HOSPITAL!!!

**[6:24]: MARINETTE:**          No

**[6:25]: ALYA:** Haha jeez girl you need to simmer down. It’ll be fine. Adrien isn’t going to hate                                                                 you.

**[6:25]: ALYA:**                 brb gotta shower

Marinette sighed as she made her way downstairs. She was trying to think of acceptable things to eat. Probably not soup, given the possibility of spilling is high. If she got something with a sauce, that might spill too, hmmm…

“Ah, Marinette, can you come here a second,” Sabine’s voice chimed. Marinette look up from her really important food thoughts to see her mother and father both sitting on the couch in the den. Her father was wearing a stern look on his face.

_Oh jeez, this can’t be good_.

“What is it?” Marinette asked innocently, as if she didn’t already know what it was.

“You father and I would just like to go over the details with you again.”

“Run us through this again,” Tom demanded. He was putting on his stern dad face, but she knew he was actually very pleased by all of it. Both of her parents had been ecstatic about whole thing. Of course, they didn’t want her to know that, but after she told them, she could hear their practical celebration of it from her room. God, it was so embarrassing.

“Well,” she started, “He’s coming to pick me up at 6:45. Then we’re going to eat.”

“And then what?”

“Uhh, I come home…I guess.”

“You guess?” Tom asked suspiciously.

“Yeah…”

“Honey,” Sabine piped up, “do you remember what your father and I are always telling you?”

There were many things they were always telling her.

“Uhh, probably?”

“About the importance of protection… and condoms.”

Marinette practically fell over.

“NOTHING LIKE THAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN!” She practically yelled. Her face was beet red. 

“Whoa, hunny,” Tom said, “I don’t really think…”

“I know, I just wanted to make sure you know.”

“I KNOW!”

“She knows!”

“Good!” She said smiling. “I just wanted to say that.”

Marinette had to turn around and walk over to the kitchen after that. She poured herself a glass of water and downed it immediately. How was she supposed to say calm when her mom is talking about…ugh.

Then the doorbell rang and her heart sank. She almost choked on the water. She pulled out her phone and checked the time. 6:32. He was early. She hadn’t planned for that. She rushed over to the door before, god forbid, her parents opened it. She yanked the door open.

Adrien Agreste was wearing a neatly ironed black button down. His hair, while not particularly different than any other day, was perfect. He was perfect. He gave a courteous little smile and wave to Marinette.

“Hey Marinette,” he said sweetly, “Sorry I’m so early.”

Marinette, on the other hand, was quite the sight. She was short of breath having almost choked and rushing over to the door. He face was wet from the water she was drinking and still very red from her mother’s, uh, reminder. She stiffened like a board.

“Uh, Adrien! H-hi, uh, Hey. It’s goud to see you.”  She brought her hand up to her cheek. She noticed it was wet.

_NO!_   

She clasped her hand over her mouth and turned away.

“Uh,” Adrien stated confused, “if I’m too early I can always come back-“

“Adrien!” Tom interrupted. He walked up behind Marinette, who used to opportunity to excuse herself.

“Mr. Dupain, it’s good to see you again,” Adrien greeted kindly.

“Hello Adrien,” Sabine said putting her arm around her husband, “You’re looking nice.”

“Thanks,” he said bashfully, “I’m sorry I’m so early.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. Marinette has been ready for hours,” she smiled sweetly.

“Oh?”

“So, what is this _cela endroit_ place?” Tom asked. “I haven’t heard of it.”

“Well, I’ve actually never been, but I’ve heard only good things about it.”

“Hm, well then, you’ll have to give me a full report then.” Tom winked. Adrien smiled.

“Yes sir.”

“Oh, you don’t need to call me sir. Sir is my father.”

“Yes Mr. Dupain.”

“And none of this Mr. Dupain stuff either. Mr. Dupain is also my father.” He said.

“You can just call me da-,“ Sabine elbowed him in the side, “-uh, Tom. My name is Tom.”

“Okay,” Adrien replied. He wasn’t going to stop calling him Mr. Dupain, but he appreciated the gesture.

Meanwhile, Marinette was frantically trying to clean up her face. She’d dried off the water, and now she was trying to stop being so damn flush. Just think of something else. _Something else_. **_Something else_**.

Tiki flew up from out her bag.

“Marinette, you’re breaking down and the date hasn’t even started yet.” She teased.

“I know, why did I think I could do this?”

“Hey, I was just teasing. It’ll be fine.”

“I don’t know. He already saw me like, like _that_.” She said gesturing to her red face in the mirror.

“Come on, you’re ladybug! You look good in red! You can do this. Just go out there and talk with him and your parents.”

“Yeah, I guess so Tiki, it’s just that-“ Then she stopped abruptly.

_Oh My God, I left Adrien out there. Alone. With my parents!_ That was motivation enough.

She burst out of the bathroom and rushed over to where they were standing. She coughed to get their attention.

“Hey, if you’re ready to go we can.” She said to Adrien.

“Oh, uh, yeah. We can go.” Marinette began to walk over to him when Tom chimed in.

“Marinette, do you have cash?”

“Oh, uh, yeah I think so…”

“Don’t worry about it Mr. Dupain,” Adrien said, “I already have all the expenses taken care of.”

“Nonsense!” Tom boomed, ignoring him. “Here Marinette,” he said will pulling 40 euros out of his wallet. He pressed it into her hand and leaned in close to her.

She could feel the foreboding tone in his voice.

“Bring me back the change,” he whispered. She scoffed and playfully pushed his face away with a finger. He gave a hearty laugh.

“You two have fun now.” Sabine said.

“But not too much fun!” Tom added laughing.

Marinette rolled her eyes as she and Adrien walked out the door.

\---

Marinette sat uncomfortably. Something about Adrien’s chauffer made her really uneasy. Maybe it was the fact that he was a huge, brutish, angry-looking man. Or maybe it was because Adrien referred to him as The Gorilla, which was not a particularly welcoming name. She glanced over at Adrien, who was staring absent mindedly out the window. This is the part of the date where she’s supposed to start some sort of engaging conversation and win over all his attention. Except, you know, she left her social graces somewhere else. Every time she opened her mouth she could almost feel something dumb making its way up her throat. Adrien broke the silence.

“So Marinette, how are you doing? You look really good by the way!”

“Ah, uh, thanks Adrien. I good, uh, I am do good, er…” _Breath in, breath out._ “I’m doing well, thanks.”

“Good! Sorry I was so early. I didn’t think I’d be taking the car to and from, but I guess the restaurant is a bit farther away than I expected.”

“Oh, it’s okay…” _Think of something, think darn it!_ “So, uh, how did you hear about this place?”

“Heh, It’s kind of a funny story,” He said, but upon second reflection, there really wasn’t anything funny about it at all. “My father’s secretary recommended it.”

Marinette patiently waited for the rest of the story, but when she realized that that was it, she scrambled to make a reply.

“Oh, your father’s secretary…She’s that serious woman who I sometimes see you with.”

“Yup,” Adrien sighed, “She’s the one who took your scarf and claimed it as hers.”

_Right, yeah, that made sense. That was the premise of this date after all._ Marinette glanced down at her hands. She didn’t like the dejected tone in Adrien’s voice. Was he still angry about the scarf?

_I suppose I can ask._

“Adrien, are you still angry about the scarf?”

Adrien gave her a confused look. “I’m not angry…anymore. And I was never angry at you.”

“Oh, well I guess it just seemed…”

Adrien let out another sigh. He kind of wanted to tell her. What was it about Marinette that made him feel comfortable talking about his private life? He made an active effort not to mention it to anyone, but here he was about to pour it all out for her. But he really shouldn’t. She wouldn’t care. He didn’t want to bum her out with his personal junk. A friend wouldn’t do that, right?

Or…wait. Weren’t friends supposed to tell each other this stuff? Ugh. The whole friendship thing was still kind of new to Adrien. He was just playing it by ear. He was already wrong about assuming Marinette was his friend earlier. But she said it, that they were friends. And friends tell each other about their personal lives, right? Bleh, it was too much to think about. He was just going to do it. 

“Well, I guess,” he began, “I’m more disappointed than angry. Although, to be honest, I don’t really have much to be disappointed about. My father never really remembers my birthday…Well I guess that’s not accurate. He remembers because it’s on his calendar. He just doesn’t…care, I guess…So when I got your scarf, I was…hopeful? Or, maybe that’s not the right word. Optimistic? Because I thought, maybe this is a turning point. Maybe he’s really beginning to change...But I guess that was just wishful thinking…So, I guess I’m just angry with myself for believing he’d changed.”

Adrien let out a small sigh again. Now that he had actually said it, maybe he shouldn’t have started off the date with such a downer. Stupid. Why didn’t he just keep it to himself? Marinette didn’t care about his personal problems. He looked over at her. But, instead of being annoyed, she was wearing a very sad expression. He thought she might cry again.

“Adrien,” she replied in a sad tone, “That’s…that’s so sad.”

How was he supposed to respond to that?

“Wha-, No. It’s not sad. It’s fine.”

“B-but, that’s not how birthdays are supposed to be.”

“No, really, It’s okay,” he reassured.

“I know, but, I feel bad. It’s just wrong.”

_She feels bad?_ That wasn’t the goal of that conversation. Adrien kicked himself for bringing it up. Not ten minutes into his first date and he makes her feel bad. Why did she even feel bad? It wasn’t her problem, it was hi-.

Wait.

_Did she…feel sorry for me? ME? Adrien Agreste.  Adrien lives-in-a-mansion,-has-a-private-_ _chauffer,-and-a-modeling-career,-literally-the-definition-of-spoiled-rich-kid Agreste! How could she, could anyone, feel sorry for him?_

Marinette, man, she was of a different sort.

“Well, uh,” Adrien said, trying to redirect the conversation. “What do you do on your birthdays?”

“Oh, uhh, well, my dad usually bakes me some sort of elaborate themed cake.”

“Really? That sounds awesome. What has he made?”

“This one time I had a, um, princess party.” _Oh My God,_ she scolded herself, _Why the hell did I use that as an example? What am I? 5 years old!?_

“U-huh,” Adrien said with genuine interest.

She tried to clear her throat of embarrassment. “So he made a castle cake. It had towers and everything.”

“Whoa, that sounds really cool!” Marinette nodded.

“It was pretty cool.”

“What else?”

“Uhhhhh, he made a Viking ship once.”

“Wow! That sounds sweet!”

“It was! It was chocolate flavored!” They both laughed.

Holy Shit. Did she just say like, 6 sentences without stuttering, and make a joke? That he laughed at! Maybe she could do this after all…    
\---

Hawkmoth stood in the dark. Eyes closed. Scanning for negative emotion. There had to be someone out there having a bad time. He stood in total silence, except his own breathing. Emotions flowed across him like smoke. Happiness, Anxiety, Boredom. They passed by him while he searched for something he could actually use.

Eventually he had a lock. Nigel Horris. International student. Had his essay on Napoleon rejected. Poor soul. Rejection is such a tough burden to bear. 

“Perhaps we can accept him,” Hawkmoth soothed has he endowed a butterfly with his energy. “Fly away my little akuma. Give let him be the one to deal some rejection!”

\---

 Marinette stared at the menu. God, everything was so expensive. This was way too high-brow for her.

“Do you know what you want?” Adrien asked sweetly.

“Uhh...” she stalled. She had no idea what she wanted. Heck, she wasn’t even sure what some of this stuff was.

“There’re so many options,” she mused as she flipped a page in her menu.

“Yeah, I can see why Nathalie likes it here.”

“D-do, you know what you want?” She asked. She squeezed her hand into a fist under the table. She did this every time she stuttered or flubbed a word. Needless to say, her hand was getting sore.

“Hm,” Adrien considered, “I’m thinking about getting the Pork Tenderloin Diane.”

_What the hell was a Diane?_

“That sounds, good.”

They sat in silence for a moment.

“So,” Marinette said, trying to figure out what the heck people talked about on dinner dates. “How’s, uh, school going?”

_Really? I ask about school? What am I, his grandmother?_

“Well you should know. You’re in most of my classes.” Adrien teased.

“R-right, haha.” Hand squeeze.

“Well there is this one group project I’m on,” he began.

“Oh?”

“Yeah, it’s me and this girl from my class.”

_Is he talking about me?_

“Uhuh.”

“She’s pretty cute, but-“

_DID HE JUST SAY I WAS CUTE? Wait, but? BUT WHAT!?_

“She’s always behind on her reading,” He smiled jokingly at her and took a sip of water. 

“Hey I caught up!” She protested.

“You have? Did you finally figure out what the Tennis Court Oaths were?” He stopped. Shit, Adrien wasn’t supposed to know she didn’t know that. That was Chat she’d talk to. He took another sip of water. Maybe she won’t notice.

“Yes, I did!” She asserted, oblivious. “I got all my reading done.”

“Good!” He smiled. He was having fun. She seemed to be too by the way she was smiling back. She was so easy to talk to, and he’d even flirted with her, kind of. This wasn’t a mistake after all.  

“So excuse me for not having a fashion show to help me learn about the Revolution.” She teased, sounding more confident. It kinda reminded him of how she’d sometimes talk to Chat.

_Maybe this is what she’s normally like…_ If that was the case, Adrien was pretty down with it.

“Haha, you want to be in a fashion show? You can be my substitute.”

“You think I got the stuff?” She asked, throwing back some imaginary hair and striking a fake pose.

“Maybe, but it’s more like this.” He dramatically flipped his hair over to the side with a confident hand and made a cool-guy pose. They both giggled.   

Just then the waiter had made his way over to their table.

“Are we ready to order?” He asked.

“Are you ready?” Adrien asked her.

“Uhhhhh, yeah!” She lied.  Adrien nodded and turned to the waiter. Marinette frantically scanned through the menu to find something to order.

“I would like the Pork Tenderloin Diane,” Adrien ordered.

“Very good sir,” The waiter turned to Marinette, “And for the lady?”

“Uhhh,” she still had nothing. “Can I get, uh…” She settled on the first thing she saw.

“Onion soup,” she heard herself say.

“Very good madam.”

_Shoot! I got soup. Wasn’t I trying to avoid that?_

“Er, uh, wait. Maybe, instead-“

She was cut off by the sound of the main doors being blown open. Everyone snapped their attention to the entrance. The doors had been blown clean off their hinges by some sort of explosion. Through the doors a man in a brightly colored, old-style military uniform marched. Behind him were rows of cannons that followed him like baby ducks follow their mother.

“Good evening!” The military man boomed, “I am Neo-polean. And I have come again to assert France to its rightful place, as ruler of all Europe!”

“W-what do you want from us?” A frightened server asked. Neo-polean gave a malicious smile.

“An army marches on its stomach. From the full-stomached, I shall march my army.” Neo-polean waved his hand and the front cannons locked into position on the server.

“Fire!” He ordered. The cannon launched a shot at the man with a huge boom! The shell hit the server and blue smoke burst from it. The smoke cleared to reveal the man transformed. He was wearing a colored uniform, much like Neo-polean, and had on a Tarleton Helmet that covered most of his face. Neo-polean laughed as he turned to the rest of the restaurant.

“Conscriptions are here!” He yelled. “FIRE!”

The cannons fell to face the diners. One after another they shot wildly into the crowd of people, transforming their victims into Neo-soldiers.

Marinette and Adrien ducked under the table before the first volley was launched. They heard the eruption of the cannons and the worried screams of the people around them. Marinette looked down into her bag at Tiki, who nodded at her.

Adrien grabber her arm.

“On the count of three, you run to the bathroom and I’ll break for the kitchen. If we split up, it’ll be less likely he’ll hit both of us.” Adrien explained. Marinette nodded in agreement.

_Good thing he wants to split up. I couldn’t transform otherwise. He should be safe in the kitchen, while I take care of this clown._

“Okay, One, Two, Three!”

They both shot out from under the table and dashed for their destinations. Marinette dodged a swing from one of the transformed Neo-soldiers as she scrambled to the bathroom. She glanced over her shoulder to see Adrien bursting through the kitchen door. _Good, he made it._ Just then she made it to her own destination. She swung the door open and slammed it close behind her.

She leaned against the door exhausted.

_WHY?_ She thought, _Why did this have to happen NOW? Why couldn’t Akuma attacks happen when nothing was going on? Or bad stuff? Why didn’t they happen during exams??_

She let out a sigh as Tiki flew out from her bag.

“Come on Marinette, you got to transform!”

“Right.”

_Maybe I’ll get another chance to go out with him…Yeah right…This was probably the only chance…_

One thing was certain though, this Neo-polean, was going to have a really bad day.

\---

Neo-polean looked out at the restaurant after his third volley. Nearly everyone had been turned into a Neo-soldier.

“Excellent! Now, form up men!” He commanded. The Neo-soldiers began to form a doubled column in front of him.

“Together! We shall take what is ours!” He announced to the soldiers, “Now we shall be the ones to reject their history!” The soldiers began to cheer. Neo-polean lifted his sabre up in triumph.

Just then a drinking glass flew overhead, knocking off his hat. The glass shattered to the floor behind him. He turned to find the glass’s source.

Chat Noir was standing on a table, gripping his pole with both hands and raising it over his shoulder.

“FORE!” He shouted as he swung his pole like a golf club at another drinking glass. The glass soared at Neo-polean who just narrowly dodged a direct hit to the chest.

“Ah!” Neo-polean rang out, “It seems we have a traitor in our midst. Men! To arms!” The Neo-soldiers charged at Chat, who effortlessly vaulted over them. They collapsed in a heap onto the table he was just standing on.

“Ha! Is that best the old guard can do?” Chat mocked, “It looks like your 100 days will be more like 100 seconds.” Just then a Neo-soldier, who’d regained balance, lunged at the unsuspecting Char Noir. Seconds before the soldier made contact, he took a yo-yo smack to the face. Chat gleefully looked down the yo-yo’s string at its owner.

“Ladybug!” he called out excitedly.

“You think you can just walk in here in ruin dates huh!?” She yelled angrily at Neo-polean. Chat gave her a questioning look.

“Dates?” he asked. “What’re you talking about?”

Lady growled. “You! You’re gonna wish someone would exile you!” She threatened. Chat was really confused.

“Haha, you think the two of you can stop me? When I have the power of France with me?” Neo-polean boasted. “Why don’t the two of you take a whiff of my GRAPE SHOT!” All of the cannons trailing him took aim at the heroes. Chat took a defensive stance.

“What out LB,” he warned, “one hit from those and you’re drafted.”

“He’s not going to hit _me_.”

“FIRE!” Shots rang out as the cannons took turn blasting at them. Chat ducked behind an upturned table as shot rang off all around him.

Ladybug, however, charged forward full force. She ducked and weaved around the shots, deflecting some off of her yo-yo, as she rushed Neo-polean head-on.  She jumped at him and raised her foot up to his face. She kicked him square in the face hard. Too hard. Neo-polean collapsed backward onto his cannons. Blood gushed from his broken nose. He clenched it reeling in pain. She examined his body to find the object possessed by the akuma. A bright shiny badge on his uniform seemed to fit the ticket. She grabbed badge and ripped it from his shirt. She threw it to the ground and stomped on it multiple times. An unnecessarily large number of times. The little akuma emerged from the pieces. She stared hatefully at it as it attempted to fly away.

Such a small thing had ruined her entire evening. This little butterfly destroyed her chances with Adrien.

_No, it’s not the butterfly. It the man behind it. Hawkmoth. He messed up my evening with Adrien_.

She cleansed the akuma and used Miraculous Ladybug (after calling for some lucky charm item she didn’t need) to fix all that was damaged.

“Wha-? What happened?” A very confused international student asked. He looked up at Ladybug. “Hey your-“

“Ladybug.” She finished for him, “And while I am glad you’re okay, could you please stop having negative emotions on Tuesday evenings from now on. Thanks.”

“What?” But she ignored him. She turned to make her way out when she ran into one Chat Noir.

“Hey LB, you okay?” he asked concerned.

“Fine,” she said dismissively.

“You sure? I mean, you were amazing. But still, that was a pretty risky move back there, and earlier you said something about ruining dates or something?”

“It’s nothing. The problem’s solved right? I have to go.”

“But,” he protested, “you beat him in like under a minute. You didn’t even really use Lucky Charm. Your transformation isn’t going to wear of for at least another-“

“I have to go home,” she stated flatly. She did want to go home at least. Her date with Adrien was done. He was probably fled halfway across Paris right now, or to his mansion. She wasn’t going to see him again. There was no point to the rest of the day. She just wanted to go to sleep.

“Yeah, but-“

“Good-bye Chat.” She said as she ran out of the restaurant. She slung her yo-yo onto the nearest rooftop and swung away. 

\---

Thirty five minutes. That’s how long it took Chat to finally find Marinette. His heart had practically sunk into the floor when he didn’t find her amongst the not-so-Neo-soldier group or in the bathrooms or in the restaurant, or anywhere in the area. He had frantically searched everywhere in the surrounding area looking for her. He was really worried. He pictured and planned for several scenarios tonight, but right out losing his date, was not one of them.

When he finally found her, she was in the park of all places, near her home. She must have really hauled to make it over there that fast. She was sitting on a park bench, alone, still wearing her dress. Chat hopped off the rooftop he was perched on and found a safe place to detransform. Once he was Adrien again, he ran over to her.

“Marinette,” he called to her, short of breath.

“Adrien?” She replied, more surprised than anything. He made is his way over to her and she stood up. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, good,” he said as he placed his hand on her shoulder. “You’re okay.”

“I’m fine. Did you _run_ here?”

“Yeah, well, I couldn’t find you after Ladybug and Chat Noir took care of that guy. I was really worried.”

“Oh, uhh,” she said embarrassed, “I assumed you’d left so I just, came here.” Adrien gave her a concerned look.

“I wouldn’t leave you.”

_Did he just say he wouldn’t leave me…_ Marinette blushed hard.

“Uhhh, N-no. I, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have, assoomed…assyumed…assumed! That.” She stammered.

“Don’t worry about it,” he smiled, “I found you so it’s all good.”

“R-right. All good.” She repeated. She still felt bad though. He looked exhausted. He must have been rushing around trying to find her. All because she ran off as ladybug to pout. Sigh. She really did mess this night up.

“D-do you want to sit own-, er,  down?”

“Sure.” Adrien replied. They sat down on the park bench together. Marinette stared down into her hands on her lap. Why did she have to run off? So stupid! Stupid, stupid, stupid.

“Sorry,” Adrien said suddenly.

“For what?” she asked surprised.

“The thank-you dinner was kind of a total bust.”

“That wasn’t your fault!”

“Yeah, but I mean, we didn’t even get to eat dinner.”

“That’s true.” It was true. They hadn’t eaten anything. Marinette dug into her bag to find the money her dad had given her.

“It’s not too late for that, though,” she said, holding up the money.

“Heh, I guess so,” Adrien chuckled. He stood up.

“So then Madam, which fine eatery establishment would you like to attend?” He asked in a jokingly formal voice.

“Hmm, let’s see,” she said in a matching tone. She surveyed the area. “How about that one,” she said pointing to a hot dog stand.

“A fine choice!”

They walked over and enjoyed their lovely hot dog dinner together.

\---

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I pretty much skipped the Lucky Charm item. But I guess she just didn't need it. Obviously the solution was front kicks to the face. It's not a bad way to solve other problems too. Try it out!
> 
> Anyways we finally hit a plot point. Can you guess how the story is going to end?   
> I'd be surprised if you could, because like, from here on out we're going to get into the...wait for it....  
> MAIN CONFLICT!  
> YAy! Who doesn't love conflict? What's that you say? human beings avoid conflict? But, wait, then why do we like to read and watch them then? That makes no sense...


	6. Setup

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maybe trying to date two girls at the same time is a mistake. I don't know, just a thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry it's been so long since I've done anything. I've been really busy with school and Thesis stuff and whatever. So here's a little mini-chapter so that I have something to put out there. I should be having more free time in the future so I'll pick the pace back up and stuff.

“Did you know that Adrien has never owned a dog?” Marinette asked gleefully to her distracted friend.

“Uh-huh.” Alya feigned interest. She was flipping through her notes.

“AND, and he went to New York once! New York! And he got one of those, uh, really big slices of pizza. He said it was pretty good!”

“Right…So when you got attacked in the café, both Chat and Ladybug entered from side entrances? Is that what you said? Do they have like some sort of special access to the building or something?” She scribbled in her notes again.

“Alya!” Marinette complained, “You’re not listening to me at all!”

“Sure I was. You were gushing about Adrien.” Marinette pouted.                                                           

“Okay, okay,” Alya relented, “It’s just, it’s not every day your best friend gets to be a key witness. Are you sure you don’t want to be interview for the blog?”

“No thanks. Interviews are scary.”

“Oh come on.” Alya elbowed her. “I’ll go easy on you.”

“No way, the last thing I want is an entire blog full of people watching me stumble through an interview.  I hate public speaking.”

Alya raised an eyebrow, “You hate public speaking?  But you make loud proclamations to the class all the time.”

“I do not make proclamations all the time!”

“More than anyone else.”

“Well…that’s only when someone needs to stand up to Chloe!”

“Yeah, which is all the time.” The girls both laughed. Once they settled down Marinette changed the subject.

“How did your date with Nino go?” She asked. Alya rolled her eyes.

“It was, okay, I guess. Nino is just such a handful.”

“He is?”

“Yeah. Like, first off, he picks me up ten minutes late because, and I’m quoting here, ‘I couldn’t decide if I should wear a hat or not.’ Like what, that took you ten minutes to decide? That boy, I swear.”

“Did he end up wearing the hat?”

“YES! He took ten minutes to decide not to take of his hat.” Alya looked over to see Nino and Adrien sitting not too far off from them. “Speak of the devil.”

“What?”

“It’s them.”

“Them?”

“Nino and Adrien.”

“Adrien!?” She gasped. She pulled her arms in close.

“What’s with you?” Alya questioned, “You went out on a date with him didn’t you? Don’t tell me you still get nervous.”

“It wasn’t a, date-date. And it’s not like I can just turn it off.”

Alya scoffed. “Well why don’t we remedy you of that then.” She stood up and stretched her arms.

“What does that mean?”

“We’re going to talk to them.” She announced.

“Huh? About what?” Marinette asked innocently. Alya gave her a menacing look. 

“You’re going to ask _him_ on a date now.”

“WHAT!?” She yelled out, causing people around her to glance over. Marinette blinked absently at the unwanted attention and laughed nervously. She got up and went close to Alya.

“what!!?” she yell-whispered. “you think I’m going to what now!?”

“Ask him out,” Alya repeated in her normal voice.

“why!? would? i? do? that!?” she continued to quietly scream.

“Cause you want to go out with him, right?” Marinette glared daggers at Alya.

“of course i do!! but i’m not-…i can’t just go and, and ask! what if he says no!?”

“He’s not gonna say no. Nino said he had a good time.”

“but, it’s the next day. isn’t that too soon or something?”

“Ehh, Adrien’s never dated anyone before, according to Nino, so it’s not like he’s gonna know the difference.”

“yeah but-“

“Make all the excuses you want, but we going over there.” She grabbed Marinette by the hand and led the reluctant girl over to the guys.

“Sup guys,” she greeted.

“Yo,” Nino replied, “how’re you two ladies doing?” Alya glanced over at Marinette. Marinette looked away, showing no sign of talking.

“Good,” she continued, “Hey Nino, mind if I borrow you for a sec?” Nino raised an eyebrow. Marinette jabbed Ayla in her side. Alya took a step away from her and grabbed Nino’s arm.

“I guess.”

“It’ll only be a moment,” she said as she led him away. Marinette glared at her departing friend. What? Was she supposed to take this opportunity to ask Adrian out? Get real! Like she was going to do that. She was too, her. And he was…

She looked over at him. He was staring up at her with those big green eyes of his.

_Oh god. What was she doing? Was she doing something that was making him look at her? Is her hair messed up or something?_

She ran her hand through her hair to check. _No, nothing odd there._

“Hey Marinette,” he said with a warm smile, “how’re you doing today?”  

“Good!” She said abruptly. “I good. You’re, uh, how’re you?”

“I’m doing well.” He said, “I really enjoyed hanging out with you last night.” His words cut through any resemblance of a social grace she was mustering.

“You did?” She asked in disbelief. He really said it. She had thought it was true, but here he was saying it.

“Of course, it was a lot of fun.”

“It was?”

“Yeah…did you have fun?” Fun was an understatement.

“Yes! Yes! No, I mean, yeah I had fun. I really enjoyed you, er, going out with you, no, being with you!”

Adrien just smiled at her. She was nervous. That was cute.

“Yeah, I think. We’ll just have to do that again sometime.” He suggested. Marinette froze in place.

_Did Adrien, of his own free volition, just suggest to me, out loud, that we go out AGAIN sometime!?_ It didn’t seem right. Maybe she had just misheard him.

“What?”

“I was saying we should go out again sometime,” he repeated. He studied her face for a reaction. She was quite literally speechless. He totally had her. He mentally patted himself on the back.

“O-oh, that’s what I thought you said. I-I would l-l-l-l-love that.”

“Good!” he declared, “it’s settled. Do you have a time in mind?”

“A time?”

“For us to go out?”

“O-oh, yeah. Uhh, how about….tomorrow afternoon?” she suggested sheepishly. She had no plan. She honestly didn’t expect Adrien to be so assertive about it. What the heck were they going to do? What was _she_ going to do?

“Okay, tomorrow afternoon then,” he agreed, “we can have lunch.”

Marinette just stared at him. Here she was, making plans for a **second** date with Adrien. And, not even a fake-date. A real outing! For real! And it was his idea! Like what!?

Adrien gave her a confused looked. She was staring at him. Shoot what did he just say?

“Uh, yeah. You’re great!”

_Thanks for nothing stream of consciousness._

Adrien gave a confused nod.

“I’ll see you then,” he said.

_Yeah, then._

\---

Adrien sat face down on his bed. He pushed his face into the clean sheets. The day felt like such a blur. He wasn’t even sure he was there for it most of the time. What had he even done?

Eat breakfast. Go to school. Have lunch. Oh right, he had asked Marinette out on a second date. He’d almost forgot about that.

Weird, that didn’t really seem like something he’d forget. But, well, his mind has been so all over the place lately, he supposed he wasn’t too surprised. Asking out Marinette just kinda seemed like the right thing to do. After their date last night, it was pretty apparent that she liked him. And he liked that. That she liked him.

And he liked her, kind of. Well, he did like her. She was fun to hang out with and everything. But, he didn’t really like her the way that she probably liked him… that wasn’t a great thought.

Maybe he shouldn’t have asked her out…

No, no, no, he wanted to go out with her again. What was the harm in that? Okay, I mean, sure, maybe this could be seen as leading her on…but he did like her. But was it enough? How much was he supposed to like her? How much did she like him?

“Ugh, this is such bull!” he blurted out in frustration.

“Hmm?” Plagg asked sleepily, “What is?”

“Should I have not asked her out?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Marinette, I asked her out on a second date today.”

“Good for you.”

“But maybe I shouldn’t have.”

“Marinette’s the one with a bakery right?” Plagg asked.

“Yeah, that’s her.”

“And you already went out with her before?”

“Yes.”

“So what’s the problem going out again?”

“Because, it’s like, she really likes me, but I don’t like her as much, I think.” Plagg sighed and flew on over to Adrien.

“So what? This girl is your girlfriend now?” Adrien flipped over in his bed and stared at the ceiling, thinking.

What would having Marinette as a girlfriend be like? Well, Adrien wasn’t sure. He’d never had a girlfriend before. Just knew about it from movies and books and stuff. She was really nice, so that was a plus. He could, like, talk about his private life with her and she’d probably listen. That could be nice. But would he have to tell her about Chat? And what was he supposed to do about Ladybug? He’d already halfheartedly decided to partition the love lives of Chat and Adrien apart from one another. But could he really keep that up if he was in an actual relationship? That didn’t seem very fair to Marinette. Of course, she wouldn’t have to know, but still. That was like cheating. He couldn’t do that.

So what then? He keeps going out with Marinette but avoids being in a relationship? That doesn’t sound like a good plan either. Ugh, he really shouldn’t have made that second date. But he really wanted it! Man, this sucks.

“What do I doooooooooooooo?” he moaned.

“Sleep it off,” Plagg halfheartedly suggested. Adrien ran his palms around his face.

“I’m going to have to pick, aren’t I?”

“Pick what?”

“Marinette or Ladybug.”

“Oh, we’re still talking about that?” Adrien shot him a look.

“Yes!” he threw his hands on his forehead. “What do I do Plagg?”

“Hmm, it sounds like you’re really working yourself up here.”

“Of course I’m working myself up! I’m in a huge conundrum here!”

“Hm, you know what I do every time I have a problem?”

“Is it eat cheese?”

“Eat cheese.”

“That’s _not_ helpful Plagg!”

“Well, look. If you wanted to go out with her, then it probably wasn’t the wrong decision right?”

“I…I guess not.”

“So there’s no problem.”

“But there is a problem! A **huge** problem! I can’t just, date Marinette…and like, also try to date Ladybug! That’s wrong!”

“Eh, Ladybug isn’t going to go for you anyway.” Adrien launched a pillow at him.

“I’m serious! What the heck am I supposed to do!?”

“Ugh, I’m done with this. Hey, kid. Let’s get some snacks.”

“Don’t call me kid.”

“Snacks!”

Adrien rolled his eyes. “Fine we’ll get some snacks. But when we get back, you’re going to give me some real advice!”

“Yeah yeah whatever.”

\---

_It was the next day. It is the next day. I’m meting Adrien for lunch today shit._

Marinette shot up from her bed.

_Oh god, what do I wear. What do I do? I haven’t practiced any conversation starters. Or or…my luck socks….DID I WASH THEM!!?_

She sprang out of bed and began to scramble around aimlessly. Tiki raised her tired body up and surveyed the panicking girl.

“Marinette,” she called out sleepily. Marinette didn’t hear her.

“Marinette!” She called out louder. Still no response. Tiki growled and flew over to her. She stopped right in from of her face and called out, “MARINETTE!”

“Ah!” Marinette jumped and stumbled backwards. “Tiki you scared me!”

“Marinette, it’s 5 in the morning. School doesn’t even start for like another 3 hours.”

“3 hours?” she repeated blankly. “Oh my god Tiki! I only have three hours to prepare!” She clutched the sides of her head and frantically looked around the room.

_What to do first!? Outfit!? That’s important!_

She rushed over to her dresser and rummaged through her outfits.

_What do I wear? What can I wear?? Okay, it’s a lunch date. So, that’s causal-ish. Well, that depends on where we go. Where are they going?_ She paused.

“I have no idea where we’re going,” she realized.

_NO! How was she going to meet him there? She didn’t know where to go! Shit shit shit shit shit shti sish sihti sit!_ She felt a tap on her shoulder.

She turned to see her little kwami shaking her head.

“Marinette, stop this. Go back to bed.”

“But, but… I need to be ready!?”

“How are you going to be ready if you spend the whole day being tired?”

“Well….I….”

“Come on Marinette, sleeping is important!”

“Yeah, I know, but!”

“No buts! Let’s go.”

Tiki gently tugged at her shirt. Marinette sighed and got up.

“Alright Tiki, you win.”

“Good! And don’t worry about the date. You’ll do great. You always do great!”

Marinette smiled. “Thanks Tiki.”

If only she always felt great…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter should have some more punch to it. If you catch my drift.


	7. Living the Dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for date number 2!
> 
> Hopefully it won't get interrupted like date number 1 did. Except, you know. It probably will....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow is it May already? Man I haven't been keeping up with this at all. But don't worry, I will now because... I graduated from College! Yay! 
> 
> Wow those four years really just...few...by...at the rate of 1 year per year. I guess it does feel like a long time since high school. Huh. Anyways, not to brag, but please indulge my humble-less bragging for a moment: 
> 
> [Rant initiated]
> 
> HAHAHA I TOTALLY GRADUATED! And not only that, I totally got a 4.0 Woot Woot! OOoooooooOOOO!   
> Finally I was able to be the try-hard nerd I always dreamed about becoming. Now I'm done....
> 
> Time to die I guess....(This is a joke)
> 
> No! Now I can move on to other stuff....like....uh...hm.... The rest of life?  
> Yes! The rest of life. Finally I can move on, and-...wait
> 
> What do you mean I'm doing grad school?...4-5 more years!? Dang man. I'm never going to be done...
> 
> [Rant over]
> 
> (*Slams fist on table*) Alright down to business.   
> I am so sorry I haven't updated in forever. I was just getting all the stuff for graduation together and finals and so much stuff...  
> But now, I'm good to go! I got all summer to burn and I'm gonna try to get through this story as soon as possible. 
> 
> So thanks for sticking in there with me. And, as always, thanks for reading! :D

Adrien tapped on the glass tabletop. He was impatient. He kept glancing over to his left, the source of the sound.

Ordinarily, this would have been rude to be so distracted on a date like this. However, Marinette was also distracted, if not more so. Her attention was darting back and forth between Adrien, her phone, and the commotion down the street.

Everything had been going so well too. They’d gotten off without a hitch. Having nice, normal conversations, making jokes, she was even able to relax a bit. But then it happened. They heard the police sirens.

Now, it could just be nothing. A traffic accident maybe. Nothing that Ladybug or Chat should get involved in. Or, or it could be something. The sirens hadn’t gone off yet. The longer they stayed on, the more likely this was serious.

Marinette checked her local news app on her phone. It wasn’t reporting anything akuma related at the moment. At least, it hadn’t yet. Sometimes the news was on top of it, other times it lagged behind badly. It was a wash. She looked back down the street, wishing for the sirens to stop. It was her duty to protect Paris. But now was not a good time. How was she supposed to enjoy Adrien when she had to constantly be on alert? It was exhausting.

Fortunately, Adrien didn’t much notice her rudeness. He seemed distracted by something else. Marinette didn’t know what, but it was convenient so she didn’t question it. Back to her phone. Man wins lottery after playing for 30 years, Migrants continue to migrate, Paris Mayor oddly wealthy for a public servant. Nothing about the sirens. She should just drop it. Let it go. This was supposed to be her time with Adrien, just like last time was supposed to be her time with Adrien…She was not going to let this opportunity slip by!

“So, uh,” she started, “it’s a nice day, huh?” _Good silence-breaker. Real top-notch conversationalist over here._

“Hm?” He said as if he had just noticed her. “I’m sorry, what was that?”

“Oh, I was just saying…it’s a nice day, you know…”

“Ah, yes. It’s…nice.”

Silence and Sirens. Adrien started tapping the table again. He wasn’t handling this any better. If that turned out to be something bad, Ladybug would be there. But he was still here. He wanted to check. But that meant abandoning Marinette. Two bad options. He had to do something.

Marinette or Ladybug. Why do they constantly seem to be the source of his problems?

“Hey Marinette,” he said finally. “Do you mind if I step out for a second?” She snapped her attention on him.

“Oh, uh, no…Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, yeah! Everything is fine. I just want to check on something really quick. It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.” He’d just go over for a second. Just to check.

“Sure,” she nodded. This worked out for her. Now she could see what’s going on while Adrien is taking care of his business.

“Great” Adrien said, standing up. “I promise this will be quick.”

“No worries,” she smiled. “Take your time.”

\---

Chat started off first. Ladybug second. They approached the site from opposite sides of the street, but once they caught sight of one another, they formed up into one unit.

“Fancy meeting you here m’lady,” chat cooed.

“Fancy huh? More like suspiciously convenient I’d say. Almost like you’re stalking me or something.”

“Well, cats have been known to stalk their prey.” Ladybug lifted an eyebrow. “But this time, it really was just chance.”

“Hm.” She wasn’t entirely sure she believed him. They finally made it to the source of the sirens. She expected some kind of commotion, or a crime scene, or something. But instead what they found was an empty road.

The cop car was parked on the side of the road, sirens blaring. But there was no officer in sight. In fact, there wasn’t anyone in sight. The whole street was completely deserted.

“I guess it was a slow day?” Chat jested with uncertainty. Ladybug approached the cop car and looked inside. Nothing. She reached in through the open window and switched the sirens off. At least now the sound wouldn’t give her a headache.

“Where is everyone?” She asked. She glanced into the surrounding shops only to find them as empty as the street was. It was like everyone had just vanished.

“Maybe the circus is in town?” Chat suggested.

“Be on your guard Chat,” Ladybug commanded, “this reeks of akuma.” She spread out along the street, looking for any signs of life. It wasn’t just the people that were gone, but the animals too. There wasn’t a stray cat or a pigeon anywhere to be found. This was all very weird.

“Hey Chat, I think getting higher up would make it easier to survey the area.”

No response.

“Chat?” She looked around for him. But he was gone.

“Great.” She said irritated. Chat has gone off on his own adventure. That’s just what she needed right now. She might as well try calling him. She brought up her yo-yo.

He didn’t pick up. Dang it Chat. She walked back over to where he had been before they split up. No sign of him anywhere. _Maybe he got attacked? No, that seems unlikely. We didn’t separate that far, I would have heard something like that. Perhaps he caught wind of something and ran off? Maybe, but he would have told her if he found something. Running off on his own wasn’t his typical behavior. So, what then? He just mysteriously disappeared?_

She walked down the street a bit until one certain store caught her eye. There was nothing particularly interesting about this store, yet, somehow she was drawn to it. She found herself approaching it and before she knew it she was inside. She looked around. It was an unremarkable antique shop. She cautiously walked to the back of the store, past several old clocks, some wooden wine crates, an old iron stool, until she was far in the back. Very far in the back. Actually, judging from the size of the building, she should have hit the back of the store by now. But there was still more.  She kept walking. There was so much stuff, it was unbelievable. She could get lost in here all day, shopping for antiques…

Lost. Right, Chat! She couldn’t be messing around in some rando store. She had to find Chat, and that police officer, and everyone else who was missing. She turned around and started heading back towards the entrance. She walked and walked and walked, but she still couldn’t see it. She picked up her pace. Storming through the isle, Ladybug tried to find the door. To no avail.

 After a few minutes, she finally realized that she wasn’t going to find the entrance. She stopped and looked around at the piles of old stuff lying around.

“Hello?” She called out. “I know this is some kind of trick. Come on out and face me!”

As if from nowhere, a sad looking woman limped out from behind a dresser.

“Oh dear,” she said gloomily, “it seems you’ve noticed.”

“Of course I noticed. Most stores don’t extend infinitely.”

“Most.” The woman repeated.

“Where are we?” Ladybug questioned sternly.

“Why, we’re in an antique store,” the woman stated simply.

“Where are we really?”

“We really are in an antique store.”

Ladybug frowned.

“You don’t seem to believe me,” the sad woman sighed, “Here I am being completely honest, and you just won’t believe me.”

“If we were really in an antique shop, I’d be able to find the entrance.”

“Ah, that’s a fair point. This,” she said while gesturing to the surrounding room, “is not the antique shop. This is what your mind thinks an antique shop looks like.”

“My…mind?”

“Yes, your mind.”

Ladybug looked around. _What was this lady talking about? How could this her mind? How could that-_

“Wait, am I, asleep?”

“Correct Ladybug. How astute you are. Very few people are actually aware that they’re asleep. Of course, you are the protector of Paris after all.”

“One of the protectors. Where’s Chat?”

“The cat-boy? Oh, he’s somewhere snoozing away. I wouldn’t bother him. People are so much more peaceful at rest. No pressure, no worries. What greater state to be in is there than sleeping?”

“What’re you after? What’s your plan?”

“My…plan? I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean. This _is_ my plan. I’m giving blissful sleep to the masses. A kind you don’t have to wake up from.”

“You’re putting people to sleep!? _Forever!?_ ”

“Well don’t say it like that. I’m not a monster. I’m giving them what they want. Now they can dream peacefully.”

“You’re not doing them any favors! Trapping them in, weird antique shops isn’t fulfilling any dreams!”

“Hm? Oh, this? You won’t be in here long. Your actual dream will start soon.”

“My actual dream?”

“Yes, you’re in the early stages of falling asleep. I believe you’re in REM now. Dreaming has already started, as you can tell from this place.  When you enter Non-REM that’s when things really start getting good. Once you hit the latter stages of Non-REM sleep, it’ll be almost impossible to wake you up. But from what I can sense of your brain waves, you’re about to drift into stage 1.”

“What!? So, you were just, distracting me? So that I’d fall fully asleep!?”

“In a sense, yes. But I wouldn’t say it like that. This is a good thing. Now you can really start enjoying the gift of sleep. Congratulations.” 

Ladybug readied her yo-yo.

“Don’t congratulate me. When I stop you, and free everyone, then you can congratulate me.” If only her body was matching her words. Her center of gravity was starting to swell. The room began to rock back and forth. Her body became heavy; holding up her limbs became a chore.

She lashed out and tried to strike the woman with the yo-yo. But her aim was off and it crashed into a stack of metal trays instead. The throw put her off balance and she started to stumble forward. She smashed to the ground in a heap. It didn’t hurt though, her body was numbing. She tried to pick herself up, but her strength was fleeting.

“No,” she gargled out as she slid back down onto the floor. She struggled just to keep her eyes open. She was seeing spots. She fought the sleep as best she could. But it was pointless. She couldn’t feel the rest of her body anymore. Her left eye sank close. There was no fighting it now. She’d have to go to Stage 3.

_Just remember to wake up. Remember it’s a dream. Remember to wake up. It’s a dream. Wake up._

\---

Marinette jolted up. She glanced around mindlessly as her eyes adjusted to the light. The huge window in front of her poured warm rays on her face. She adjusted herself from a lying position to a sitting position on the white couch.

“Hey you finally woke up,” a voice behind her called out. She turned to see Adrien.

“mhm, how long was I out for?” she asked while stretching her arms to the sky.

“Not that long. A few minutes maybe,” Adrien replied. He walked up behind her and plopped a plate of fresh cookies on her lap.

“It was long enough for me to make these though.” He winked at her. She playfully elbowed him in the chest.

“You liar. You can’t bake cookies in a few minutes, I should know.” Adrien recoiled in false anguish, holding his chest.

“Ah, so harsh. Your cruelty is surpassed only by your ability to fall asleep on this uncomfortable couch.”

“Yeah yeah. This couch isn’t _that_ uncomfortable.” She turned to him, “why don’t you come over here and feel for yourself?”

“Well then, don’t mind if I do.”  He slipped around the edge and sat down next to her. Marinette held up a cookie.

“So what kind of cookie did the chef prepare?”

“Why don’t you take a bite and find out?” Marinette smiled.

“Oh, whatever could it be?” She said even though they were very obviously snickerdoodles. She took a bite and made a fake gasp.

“Wow,” she said dramatically cupping her mouth, “I didn’t expect that filling.”

“Yeah well I-…wait, filling?”

“Don’t act so coy. You said you made then right?”

“Well, yeah. But I didn’t put any filling-“

“Then what’s this?” She said shoving the other half of the cookie into Adrien’s face. She inserted it into his mouth like she was pushing a credit card into an ATM. Adrien took a loud crunch into his newly acquired cookie. He chewed it up and swallowed.

“There was no filling in that!” he complained.

“Well of course not,” she teased, “You made them right?” Adrien growled.

“Clever girl,” he whispered under his breath.

“What was that?”

“I said ‘It has a weird after taste doesn’t it?’”

“After taste? I didn’t have an after taste.”

“You sure? It tasted like this.” Adrien quickly leaned forward and pecked her on the lips. Marinette blinked, then glared at him.

“You taste it now?” Adrien asked, holding back his own amusement.

“hm, you know. I think I actually prefer the after taste.”

“Oh really,” he replied. “Well there’s plenty of that where that came-…wait. Does that mean you don’t like my cookies!?”

“What? No.”

“NO!? YOU DON’T LIKE THEM!?”

“No! I’m just saying that-“

“I can’t believe this. I slaved over a hot stove. A four-sided, closed stove. An oven, if you will. And you don’t even appreciate the fruits of my labor.”

“Well maybe that’s because your fruits are hard and taste like cinnamon sugar,” she retorted. “Besides, I never said I didn’t like them! You were putting words in my mouth! I was hoping-“ she stopped herself from saying ‘I was hoping you’d put something else in my mouth…’

_Whoa Whoa Whoa, that’d be way misconstrued._

“You were hoping…?” He questioned.

“I was hoping… that we’d do something else with our mouths.” _Nice save._

“Well I think that’s a wonderful idea.” Adrien started leaning in close and closed his eyes. Marinette ginned like a big stupid idiot and waited for him to get closer. He came at her slowly and when he was only a few centimeters away, she could wait any longer. She plunged herself at him. She threw her arms around his shoulders and pressed her lips to his. It was soft and warm. It was perfect. She felt his hands on her back, pulling her close. She scooted closer to him on the couch, while their mouths started to act on their own. This was great. He pulled her close so her chest was touching his. This was perfect!

Thud!

The sound of the plate of cookie hitting the floor pierced through the romance. Marinette snapped over to the scene of sweet disaster. She watched as one sad snickerdoodle rolled away from its fallen brothers.

“Adrien! The cookies! I’m so sorry.”

“Haha, don’t worry about it.” He dropped his hand from her back and got up. “It’s expected that I’d make you weak kneed.” Marinette threw her hands on her hips.

“Weak kneed huh? Is that what that was? Maybe it was just my subconscious rejection of your baking,” she teased.

“Ouch.” He feigned an injury. “Such cruel words from a baker’s daughter. I guess there really is no impressing you.”

“That’s right. You’re going to have to try harder than that.” Of course, that was a lie. Everything he did was magnanimously impressive. Even the way he was cleaning up the spilled cookies was impressive. But she wasn’t about to tell him that.

“Hm, leave it to me to pick the girls that are hard to court.”

“Well maybe if you had a stronger case, it wouldn’t be so hard.”

“Is it too late to make an appeal to that subconscious of yours?”

“Ha, please. If you wanted to appeal to my subconscious, you should have done so when I was sleeping.”

“When you were sleeping?”

“Yeah, but not just any sleep, you should have waited until I was in REM sleep or something.”

She stopped.

_What did she just say? REM sleep? What was that?_

“Hey Marinette, you okay?”

“What? Oh, yeah…”

_Why had she thought of that? She had heard about that before. REM sleep. Non-REM sleep. Why did that sound familiar?_

“Hey Mari? You’re staring off into space again. You sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah. I’m…” She paused. “Hey Adrien, when did I get here?”

“Hm?”

“Like, I was asleep on your couch, but I don’t remember anything before that really.”

“Oh no?”

“No. And also, I keep thinking about something I heard about sleeping.”

“Sleeping?”

“Yeah, do the terms REM and Non-REM mean anything to you?”

“Sure. REM stands for rapid eye movement and Non-REM stands for non-rapid eye movement. They’re stages of sleep I believe.”

“Stages of sleep,” she repeated to herself. This was sounding familiar. She was making the connections. “And the later stages of Non-REM are difficult to wake up to.”

Her memories started flooding in. “ _She_ told me that!” She realized. “This is-, I’m in-, it’s a-“

Her expression dropped. She turned to Adrien.

“This is a dream,” She said. Her face sank somberly as she looked into the eyes of her crush. “It’s not real. Is it?”

“Marinette what are you talking about?” Adrien asked, oblivious to the situation.

“This is all fake. You don’t want to kiss me. We can’t even get through one date together.” She rubbed her hands across her face. _What a disaster. How could she let herself get caught in such an obvious trap. As if something like this would ever happen…_

She lightly slapped her face a few times. _Now’s not the time to be beating yourself up. I still have a job to do._

That’s right. She couldn’t be Marinette right now. She had to be Ladybug. She took a deep breath.

“Okay. I need to find a way out of this place.”

“Your leaving?” Adrien asked, more than a little hurt. She had to turn away from his sad face. _He’s not real. He’s not real._

“Yeah. I have to go. Where’s the way out?” Adrien sunk his head.

“The door’s over there. It leads out.”

“Thanks Adrien.” She started to walk over to it.

“But,” he interjected. “If what you say is true, if you walk out that door. I’m never going to get to see you again…”

_What the hell kind of dream is this anyway? A guilt trip!?_ She clenched her hand into a fist.

_Oh what the hell? It’s not real anyway, right?_

She turned to him. She marched over to him, grabbed his chin, and pushed her lips onto his. With all her might she kissed him. She kissed the hell out of him. And after the count of three…No five…No ten, she shoved him away and stormed out of the room.

_That was quite enough of that. Thank you very much!_

For now she had to find the akuma. She had to find Chat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's right ladies and germs. Up from the depths of tired old narrative tropes, I give you, the one, the only, "stuck in a dream" trope. 
> 
> Thank you, thank you, you're much too kind. 
> 
> Oh and uhh, if any of you out there are like, sleep specialists or something. I totally didn't just skim through a bunch of stuff on wikipedia about REM sleep, haha, no that'd be unprofessional and lazy....but uh, yeah, maybe don't hold what I said about it as truth per say. 
> 
> Also did you see those "court" and "case" wordplay I snuck in there? Yeah, I remember what I titled this fic. I have my eye on the ball. All Trial/Court related puns are purely intentional! I'm charging my self with intent! Please don't hold me in contempt!


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